Homicide charges from Bucks bar lot fight

A Bucks County man has been charged with homicide after a 74-year-old man he allegedly beat up in a bar parking lot over a fender-bender in May died of his injuries.

Kevin Fitzgerald Kenny, 49, of Fairless Hills, was arraigned Monday in Falls Township on a general count of criminal homicide, the grade of which will be determined in court, and related charges. District Judge Jan Vislosky sent him to the Bucks County prison with bail set at $5 million.

John Fleisch, 74, of Fairless Hills, died July 26 at a hospice. A woman who answered the phone at his home declined to comment.

The beating allegedly occurred May 23 outside the Puss N Boots Tavern in Fairless Hills. Both men were driving Ford F-150 pickups as they pulled out of the parking lot about 5:15 p.m., police said.

Surveillance video showed Fleisch's truck driving over a concrete parking block and striking Kenny's truck, causing a scratch and some minor damage to a bumper, according to the criminal complaint. In the video, Fleisch drives on until Kenny chases him down on foot, aggressively reaching into Fleisch's pickup until both men are standing in the parking lot, police said.

After a brief conversation, Kenny allegedly attacked Fleisch, grabbing his neck and chin and thrusting him backward onto the ground, police said. Fleisch never got up.

When police arrived, Kenny allegedly told them about the accident but not the fight, saying Fleisch "fell backwards."

After Fleisch's death two months later, the Bucks County Coroner's Office ruled the death a homicide, basing its finding on brain swelling, a skull fracture, a blood clot, and "massive loss of brain substance."