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Easter marks one year since Coweta County gun range murders

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Published  April 7, 2023 5:49pm EDT
Coweta County
FOX 5 Atlanta

Weekend marks one year since triple murder at Grantville gun store

The Hawk family is asking their neighbors to remember Tommy, Evenlyn and Luke in their prayers and celebrate their lives this weekend. It has been one year since they were gunned down at their family-owned gun store in Grantville.

GRANTVILLE, Ga. - This weekend marks the one-year anniversary of a triple homicide at a Grantville gun store. Three members of the Hawk family were gunned down in what the police say was a robbery.

The Hawk family is asking this Easter weekend for Coweta County residents to remember Tommy, Evenlyn, and Luke in their prayers and celebrate their lives by spending time with their own family.

"I think it’s really important, and the family has said many times that we could be angry with all that has happened but we choose to pray for the perpetrator’s redemption and salvation and our faith and our family are fence posts in our life and we hope others can find that example also," Shelby Whitlock, Luke’s aunt, told FOX 5.

Jacob Christian Muse, 21, of College Park

Jacob Christian Muse, 21, of College Park (Provided by Coweta County Sheriff's Office)

Investigators named Jacob Christian Muse as that perpetrator. He has been sitting in a jail cell since April 2022 charged with the triple homicide. Investigators accuse Muse of shooting the three in a robbery of the mom-and-pop gun store owned by Tommy and Evelyn Hawk. Their grandson, Luke, was working that day to save money for college. He would have been a freshman at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College this year.

The family has established a scholarship in his honor.

"A lot of good was taken out of this world when Tommy Evelyn, and Luke left us. So, this is a way that we can all give good back," said Ron Whitlock, Luke’s uncle.

Tommy and Evelyn Hawk and their grandson Luke.

The family is asking for public support for the fund. Donations can be made through the school’s web page (www.ABAC.edu/give) and the Luke Hawk Scholarship.

In addition, the family says it has donated funds to Coweta County's first responders in Tommy’s name and for Evelyn, The Ronald McDonald House.

The one-year anniversary falls on Easter Sunday, which they say has made Holy Week for them even more difficult.

"This week is extra hard. It would have been Tommy’s 76th birthday. And Evelyn loved Easter. It was one of her favorite holidays. She got to have all her family around her and she loved spring and bright colors. And Luke did too."