BUCKEYE LAKE, Ohio (WCMH) — A small community is still in shock after a man was shot and killed at a Buckeye Lake bar Friday night.
Friends and family remember Ben Hawk, 42, as a star in the karaoke community and someone who would help anyone.
Ben Hawk was doing what he loved – singing – when a man walked up and shot him. Residents said the shooting has rocked this tight-knit community.
“I wish I just got the chance to say goodbye,” Ben’s brother David Hawk said.
Friends and family describe Ben Hawk as a shining light.
“He always had a way of lighting up a room, telling jokes, making people laugh,” David Hawk said. “He was always there for people. Even though he had his own demons he was fighting.”
David Hawk lives out of state. He said he found out about what happened to his brother through social media.
“I’ve dealt with a lot of death in my life, but it’s always been an illness, someone we knew was coming, but to have someone just taken, it is a different, a different type of feeling, a feeling, a sense of anger,” David Hawk said.
Ben Hawk was well known in the karaoke community in Licking County and surrounding areas.
According to investigators, Ben Hawk was at Louie’s Corner House in Buckeye Lake Friday to sing karaoke.
The bar’s owners said Ben Hawk had just started coming to sing there about a month ago. Authorities said that when it was Ben Hawk’s turn to sing, his alleged shooter, Richard Lindgren, followed him to the stage and shot him.
Ben Hawk’s friends and court records allege Lindgren went to the bar specifically looking to harm him. Lindgren was arrested in South Carolina on Saturday.
Louie’s Corner House is the oldest family-run bar in the area. Its owners said nothing like this has ever happened, leaving the entire staff shaken.
“Life is too short,” resident Baylee Klingel said. “It is something that you see in movies. You don’t think that it’s going to happen to you, let alone somebody so close to you and the community.”
Klingel met Ben Hawk through the karaoke community.
“He started singing, and I think we all kind of stopped in our tracks,” Klingel said.
She said everyone knew him and he went out of his way to make people feel safe. She said even his death is bringing people together.
“People I don’t talk to you on the regular, like, I’m now having conversations with and building relationships with and friendships with because he was such a big influence in everybody’s lives,” Klingel said. “People from Mount Vernon, people from Buckeye Lake, and then you’ve got people in Newark; like, his impact was crazy.”
Ben Hawk has three daughters as well as a child who died at birth. The bar owners said they are planning a fundraiser to help his family.
Ben Hawk had advanced to the karaoke state finals, where the winner would be sent to a national competition in November. The Ohio worlds team has named him an honorary member.
