Hawk thankful for support of law enforcement, Coweta community - Newnan Times-Herald
Speaking to the media for the first time since his parents and son were murdered at their family-owned gun range, Richard Hawk, Coweta County Coroner, thanked the Coweta community for their support.
Hawk spoke at a press conference Monday morning alongside Grantville Police Chief Steve Whitlock, Coweta County Sheriff Lenn Wood and Deputy Coroner Gary Stallings.
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“Thank you again to the city of Grantville, to the community here in Coweta at large for such an outpouring of love and support,” Hawk said. “I can’t thank each of you enough. We appreciate the prayer vigil in our family’s honor, as that was well attended. We’re also honored that you took the time out of your day to come to it.”
At the press conference, Hawk also said his family was grateful for the efforts of local law enforcement, including the Grantville Police Department, the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office, as well as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
While there, Hawk provided the assembled media with a verse of scripture, John 3:16, which says “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
“That’s what we’re after, that everybody have eternal life,” Hawk said. “That’s all I have for now.”
“Mom, dad, and ‘hey buddy, come here’”
During the press conference, Hawk spoke of his parents, Tommy and Ellen and his son Luke, who Hawk said “stood for the Lord.”
“He loved hanging out with our pastor,” Hawk said. “The Sunday before this happened, Pastor called on him to pray at Disciple Fellowship, and he had never prayed out loud in front of a group of people, just around Pastor and myself. He prayed, he got home and said ‘I was nervous, Dad, nervous as I don’t know what’ and I’m like, ‘well, how’d you do?’ He said ‘I just talked to God and it was easy. I wish I had been doing it more.’”
“My mom and dad were Christian people, and raised me in a Christian home,” Hawk said. “They spent 75 years together. They died together. They were both afraid of how they were going to leave out of here, but God took care of them. They both had peaceful looks. They were happy.”
Hawk said Luke was very close to his grandparents, being the only boy out of seven grandchildren. He said that Luke loved working with his grandparents at the gun range.
“Luke loved to be there,” Hawk said. “We used to live right next door to it, and even as a little tot, he would drive his little battery-operated car up there, Grandpa would call and say ‘hey, you know your boy’s up here’ and I’m like ‘no, didn’t know that, he was outside a while ago’ and we’d have to go get him.”
Hawk said his son loved shooting, hunting, fishing, being on the tractor and anything outdoors.
Hawk said the moment he was proudest for his son was when he was five or six.
“He accepted the Lord as his personal savior,” Hawk said. “That’s my proudest moment. That was forever settled that day where he would be, and now I know where he is.”
Law enforcement talks support
While Whitlock said there would be no answers from law enforcement concerning the case, he did thank the Hawk family for letting him be there with them.
“They’re a great family, they’ve been through a lot,” Whitlock said. “I appreciate them working with us.”
He also thanked the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office, the ATF, GBI and the District Attorney’s office for their support, as well as the community.
“They stood behind this family right here, and it meant a lot to us, and I want to thank everything y’all have done.”
Wood said he lives a few miles away from the gun range, so when the call came out about the shooting, he went by.
“I didn’t do anything,” Wood said. “Sheriff’s Office was there in a support role. We were there to assist in any way we could. It was Grantville’s jurisdiction, so we offered any assistance we could do, but we also were there for the chief and their department, whatever they needed, physically and mentally. We were there for Richard and his family, whatever they needed, physically and mentally.”
Wood also cited the strength of the Coweta County community, saying he “couldn’t live in a better place.”
“It’s evident in everything we’ve done in the last few years,” Wood said. “This support that not only the Hawk family have received, but us as law enforcement have received has been outstanding.”
Suspect remains behind bars
On April 15, police arrested Jacob Christian Muse, 21, of College Park. Muse was charged with three counts of malice murder in connection with the triple homicide at the Lock, Stock and Barrel Shooting Range in Grantville.
During a search warrant conducted at Muse’s College Park residence on April 15, investigators located a number of handguns and long guns that were stolen from the shooting range, according to Whitlock.
During the investigation, agents learned that Muse was a former resident of Grantville, and also a customer of the shooting range, having purchased at least one gun from the store and spent time using the firing range.
On Monday, Hawk said he did not personally know Muse. When asked what he would want to tell him, Hawk said he wanted to tell him about the Lord.
“I want to tell him who Jesus Christ is and what He can do for him, because that’s who he needs,” Hawk said.
source: https://times-herald.com/news/2022/05/hawk-thankful-for-support-of-law-enforcement-coweta-community
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