Sandy MaloneGrantsville, GA – Police said three members of the same family were murdered on Friday evening and about 40 weapons were stolen from the gun range they owned and operated in Coweta County.
The investigation began at about 8 p.m. on April 8 when the son of the gun range owners arrived at the facility and found his mother, father, and 18-year-old son dead, WGCL reported.
“I didn’t get the call in an official capacity, I’m the one who actually found them,” Coweta County Coroner Richard Hawk told NBC News on Monday. “They were not home the way they were supposed to be and I went to check on them [at the gun range] and that’s when [the discovery was made].”
Grantsville police said the murders occurred at the Lock Stock & Barrel shooting range sometimes between when the business closed at 5:30 p.m. and when the bodies were discovered, FOX News reported.
Police have identified the deceased owner of the range as 75-year-old Tommy Hawk, NBC News reported.
The other victims were his wife, Evelyn Hawk, and 18-year-old grandson, Luke Hawk.
Luke Hawk was on spring break from East Coweta High School and had been helping in his grandparents’ business, his father told NBC News.
Grantville police said that robbers stole “approximately 40 guns” from the range, WGCL reported.
The suspects also took the range’s security surveillance system and DVR in the robbery.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) both have agents on the scene assisting with the Grantsville Police Department with the investigation, WSB reported.
The coroner declined to discuss any of the details of the robbery or the murder of his family, NBC News reported.
“We don’t have enough leads right now,” Richard Hawk said.
Investigators worked through the weekend trying to piece together what happened to the family who had run the gun range in the small, tight-knit community for 30 years.
Local, state, and federal law enforcement all on scene through the morning after a triple homicide in Coweta County. It happened at the Lock, Stock, and Barrel Shooting Range in Grantville on Friday. Full report on @GoodDayAtlanta pic.twitter.com/MKOv00by1z
— Lindsay Tuman (@LindsayOnTV) April 9, 2022
Grantsville is located about 50 miles southeast of Atlanta, according to The Washington Post.
Police have no suspects and have asked the community to come forward with any information about the crimes.
Authorities are looking to talk to anyone who drove by Lock Stock & Barrel between 5:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. and might have seen any vehicles nearby other than a white Ford dually truck and a black Ford Expedition, WGCL reported.
A $15,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest or conviction of the suspects, NBC News reported.
“The brutality of these senseless murders along with the fact that these killer(s) have acquired additional firearms make solving this case our top priority,” ATF Special Agent in Charge Benjamin Gibbons said.
Coweta County Sheriff Lenn Wood called the deaths “senseless and tragic” and said authorities had “very little answers,” NBC News reported.
“I am a life-long member of Coweta and every family, especially the Hawk family, are a valuable and precious part of my life,” Sheriff Wood said. “I am also fervently praying that God will use our law enforcement community and the Coweta Community to bring justice swiftly.”
“Richard has served faithfully for decades in our law enforcement community,” the sheriff continued. “He’s a committed public servant and moreover a personal friend of mine.”
Holly Matkin
