Police: Man killed roommate with hammer, cut up body with...

GASTONIA, N.C. — Gastonia police arrested a man they say killed his wheelchair-bound roommate.

Police are still working what is described as an awful crime scene in the apartment on Little Ave.

The home that is now surrounded by crime scene tape was Richard Gentry's dream home.

Friends said he had been homeless and needed a roommate to afford the apartment.

Police said the roommate hit the wheelchair-bound man in the head Tuesday night with a hammer and then cut up his body in an attempt to conceal the crime.

Police said Brian Hord admitted to the crime, but only after officers found Gentry's dismembered body hidden in the apartment.

The men moved into the home on Little Avenue about a month ago and neighbors said they appeared to be close.

“(It) seems like they were fine. I thought they were son and dad,” said neighbor Tommy Watkins.

Friends said Gentry was a man trying to put his life, on a new path -- a stable path.

A month ago, he'd moved into a new apartment in Gastonia with Hord.

"He'd give you the shirt off his back,” said Tamara Quinn.

Quinn was at Hord's bond hearing Wednesday. She was there to stand up for Gentry. Both were clients at a Gastonia homeless shelter until a month ago. Quinn said Gentry was excited about the opportunity for a real home.

"He said he had found a place on little avenue that he was moving into with some guy. I guess that was the guy he was moving in with,” she said.

Hord was denied bond. He has several prior convictions, including assault on a female. The gruesome scene inside his apartment is baffling to Quinn.

"It's unbelievable," she said. "It's shocking."

Officers said they bickered and Hord hit the 68-year-old amputee in the head with a hammer.

"I wouldn't think he could have put up much of a fight being bound to a wheelchair," said Gastonia Police Capt. Steve Duncan.

Police said Hord called his estranged wife and told her what happened.

She called 911.

"He actually mentioned it before, about doing it, he said he's just not gotten up the courage to do it," she told the 911 operator.

Police said Hord then began dismembering Gentry with a hacksaw.

Officers said when they knocked on the door Hord told them his roommate wasn't there.

They later found Gentry's remains in a bedroom wrapped in plastic.

They said that's when Hord told them everything.

"If he would never called and told somebody something how long would he have stayed down there with that body," said neighbor Lakeasha Pierce.

Hord has several prior convictions, including one for assault on a female.

The district attorney said he is considering the death penalty.