ATLANTA (AP) — Police are searching for at least one armed suspect in connection with the killing of the owner of a gun range in Georgia and his wife and grandson, authorities said Saturday.
The Grantville Police Department said via Facebook that the robbery occurred Friday evening. When officers arrived at the scene around 8 p.m., they discovered the bodies of the owner of Lock Stock & Barrel Shooting Range, along with his wife and grandson.
Police Chief Steve Whitlock said the Hawk family was well-known and well-respected in their small, tight-knit community. The Hawks had operated Lock Stock & Barrel for nearly 30 years. Their grandson was on spring break, helping his grandparents at the shop.
Multiple law enforcement agencies, including the GBI and the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office, converged on the business when the son of the shooting range’s owners discovered their bodies Friday evening and called 911, according to Grantville Police Chief Steve Whitlock.
Whitlock identified the three people killed as the owners, Tommy Hawk and his wife, Evelyn Hawk, and their 19-year-old grandson, Luke Hawk. Whitlock said Luke was home from college on spring break helping his grandparents with their business. Luke’s father Richard Hawk, who also works as the Coweta County coroner, is the one who found their bodies, the chief said.
“ATF and our law enforcement partners will work tirelessly to bring the killer(s) to justice,” ATF Atlanta Field Division Special Agent in Charge Benjamin P. Gibbons said. “The brutality of these senseless murders along with the fact that these killer(s) have acquired additional firearms makes solving this case our top priority.”
A reward of $15,000 has been posted for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killer or killers in the case, according to the ATF Atlanta office’s Twitter feed.
