Update:

Earlier story:

An 85-year-old Korean War veteran found burned to death in the back yard of his North Birmingham home spent his life taking care of others, friends and family said.

Gene Emory Dacus, known affectionately by his neighbors as "Mr. Gene," served his country in the U.S. Army, served his family by loving them, teaching them and taking care of them, and served his neighbors by cutting their grass, picking up trash and being their friend. "He was the most kindhearted gentleman you ever met,'' said Gary Dacus, one of the victim's three sons. " He never met a stranger, and he helped anybody he could."

A teen suspect is in custody, and formal charges are expected on Thursday.

Birmingham police were called to Dacus' home Wednesday morning around 12:30 a.m. after receiving calls about a person on fire. When they arrived on the scene, they found the elderly man burned in the back of his home. He was pronounced dead on the scene.

Birmingham police spokesman Lt. Sean Edwards said witnesses told police they saw a fire in the yard before seeing a man running down a nearby alley with a red gasoline jug. Police arrested that man a short distance from the crime scene.

Edwards said that the preliminary investigation shows the suspect and the victim had an argument, before the victim was doused with gasoline and set on fire.

"This homicide shocks the conscience of any reasonable person. Our hearts are hurting for the victim, his family and our community,'' said Birmingham police Chief A.C. Roper. "The suspect actually confessed to this crime but we have not received any logical justification to explain what happened."

Neighbor Helen McComb said she was at her nearby home late Tuesday night when she heard a commotion outside and went on her front porch to investigate. "I could see something burning,'' she said. "Then a guy ran out yelling somebody had burned up Mr. Gene."

McComb said she ran to the crime scene and saw Dacus. "I lost it," she said. "He's been here forever. People here loved Mr. Gene."

Friends and neighbors this afternoon were taking Dacus' death hard. Todd Ahmed said Dacus was one of the first people he met when he moved here from Sudan and said he is devastated by the slaying.

"I have a lot of friends but none like him,'' Ahmed said. "I'm really shocked. He was nice, nice, nice. He always told me if I needed help to come to him."

Even at 85, Dacus made it his priority to tidy the neighborhood. He cut his neighbors' grass, and they watched out for him. "He was very sweet to all of the children,'' McComb said. "He kept our neighborhood clean."

Dacus' car was stolen about three weeks ago. Neighbors said he then became worried about his truck also getting stolen so they advised him to pull it into his yard and close to his house, which he did.

That truck, however, disappeared about the same time he was killed. Police are now searching for his 1999 Dodge Ram pickup. It is white with a blue hood.

Gary Dacus said his father was a Georgia native who was in the U.S. Army and served in the Korean War. After his discharge, Dacus became an airplane mechanic, first for Drummond Aircraft and then Lockheed Martin. He and his wife, Earnestine, together raised three sons. After all of his children got out school, Dacus and his wife moved to Birmingham to care for his grandparents in their family home - that was in the 1950s.

Eventually his grandparents died, but he and his wife and their disabled son, who is now 60, stayed in the 33rd Avenue North home. Earnestine Dacus died in 2005, but her grieving husband refused to move away. Gary Dacus said he worried about his aging father. "I did try to get him to move,'' he said. "I had a home set up for him and ready for him to move in but he wouldn't do it."

He said his parents were born during the Depression, and lived a modest life. What they may have lacked in education or money, they more than made up for in love and compassion. "He taught me good rules and I have a lot of my father in me,'' he said. "I'm a successful person for that."

Gary Dacus said he received the heartbreaking news about his father's death early today and immediately drove to Birmingham. "I got the call, and I just broke down,'' he said.

He said the suspect hit his father in the head, left the scene and then returned and set him on fire to try to conceal the crime. "The only thing I can hope to God for is that he was dead before he was burned,'' the emotional son said. "You expect your parents to die before you, but to die a horrendous death like that is unimaginable."

Gary Dacus is now making funeral arrangements for his father, who will be buried in Gardendale alongside his wife. The son is also making plans to take custody of his disabled brother.

The suspect, Gary Dacus said, "should never be able to walk the face of the earth again." "My father's death is a tragic loss,'' he said. "The community lost one of its pillars."