A Georgia coroner went to a shooting range owned by his family on Friday night and found that his parents and son had been shot dead in a robbery, officials said.
In a brief telephone interview with the Guardian on Sunday, Richard Hawk confirmed that his 19-year-old son Luke Hawk, father Tommy Hawk and mother Evelyn Hawk were killed at the shooting range owned by his father.
Police are still looking for suspects, said Richard Hawk, whose office investigates causes and modes of death in Coweta County, about 50 miles southwest of Atlanta.
“Tommy, Evelyn and Luke knew the Lord as their personal Savior,” Hawk said, fighting back tears. “They died knowing the Lord, and they are in heaven.
“In case there’s anyone out there who doesn’t know [the Lord]they must – time is of the essence.”
The killings of Hawk’s son and 75-year-old parents followed a series of high-profile and deadly shootings across the United States, including one in Sacramento on April 3 that left six dead and twelve injured. Calls for meaningful gun control legislation have increased in some quarters.
Police from Grantville, a town in Coweta County, went to the Lock, Stock & Barrel shooting range around 8 p.m. Friday. They found the owner, Tommy Hawk, his wife and their grandson killed in an apparent robbery.
Someone had stolen about 40 guns. The surveillance camera was also taken, the police said in a statement.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives assisted local police. Officials offered up to $15,000 in reward money for information leading to arrests.
The Hawks are well known in their community, which was shocked by the killings in Atlanta, according to WSB-TV.
“The Hawk family, the city of Grantville and the community of Coweta have been forever fractured and changed by this senseless and tragic event,” local sheriff Lenn Wood said in a statement. “Family was taken from the Hawk family and us far too soon and we are left with hurt, pain and very few answers.”
Richard Hawk, 51, was elected Coroner for Coweta County in 2012. Before that, he worked as a paramedic for almost three decades.
“My heart aches and I pray to our God that He is always present with Richard and his family now, offering peace, strength and overwhelming love,” Wood added. “I also pray fervently that God will use our law enforcement community and the Coweta community to bring about justice quickly.”
