The suspect in the fatal shooting of a man while he was singing karaoke at a Buckeye Lake bar was arrested in South Carolina, according to the Licking County Sheriff’s Office.
Police near Orangeburg, South Carolina, arrested Richard Lindgren, 59, without incident on July 12. Lindgren is accused of fatally shooting Benjamin Hawk, 42, inside Louie’s Corner House bar in Buckeye Lake on July 11.
The bar owner who witnessed the shooting said she was shocked and there has never been anything like it at the bar that her family has owned for nearly 50 years.
According to the Licking County Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded to a shooting at 11:52 p.m. at Louie’s Corner House bar in the 11100 block of Hebron Road in Buckeye Lake.
Upon arrival, deputies found Hawk, who had been shot. He died at the scene.
Bar owner: Shooting was ‘very traumatizing’
Debbie Williamson, owner of Louie’s Corner House, said she was sitting in the beer garden at the bar when she heard what sounded like a loud firecracker go off because people have been getting rid of fireworks following the Fourth of July.
When she looked over, she saw a man with a prosthetic leg running out of the gate of the beer garden with people chasing him. She said the victim was singing a karaoke song, and “got like three words out” before he was shot.
“It was very traumatizing,” Williamson said.
She said neither the victim or the suspect were locals or regular patrons of the bar, and that she believes it was a premeditated domestic incident.
“My mom and dad bought this bar in ’76, and we’ve never had anything like this,” Williamson said.
Suspect arrested out of state
The sheriff’s office said contact had been made with law enforcement in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida after a nationwide arrest warrant had been issued for Lindgren.
The 2011 Buick Lucerne Lindgren was believed to have been driving was recorded by two cameras in South Carolina, the sheriff’s office said.
A South Carolina state trooper pulled over Lindgren’s vehicle and they, along with the Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office, arrested Lindgren without any further incident.
Lindgren is being held in South Carolina while the extradition process back to Ohio is ongoing.
Orangeburg is southeast of Columbia and northwest of Charleston, more than 500 miles from Buckeye Lake.
(This story has been updated with new information.)
Cole Behrens covers K-12 education and school districts in central Ohio. Have a tip? Contact Cole at cbehrens@dispatch.com or connect with him on X at @Colebehr_report
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Suspect in Buckeye Lake bar shooting arrested in South Carolina
Reporting by Cole Behrens, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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