ATLANTA — Two of the three men found shot to death on a Cobb County golf course last weekend had been bound and gagged with tape before being placed in the bed of a pickup truck, according to warrants made public Friday morning.
Bryan Rhoden, 23, was arrested Thursday after being identified as the “lone shooter” in the bizarre triple homicide at an affluent Kennesaw-area country club over the Fourth of July weekend.
He faces three counts of murder, three counts of aggravated assault and two counts of kidnapping in Saturday’s shooting deaths of golf pro Gene Siller, 46, and the two victims found in the truck, 46-year-old Henry Valdez and 76-year-old Paul Pierson.
Investigators said Valdez and Pierson, who both lived in other states, were dead in the back of a Dodge Ram when Rhoden drove the vehicle onto the 10th hole of the Pinetree Country Club and got stuck near the green. The pickup belonged to Pierson, according to police.
Siller, a father of two and Pinetree’s director of golf, was shot in the head when he went onto the course to investigate, authorities said.
At a news conference Thursday evening, Cobb police Chief Tim Cox declined to say how Rhoden knew Valdez and Pierson, and did not provide a possible motive for their shootings. Valdez lived in Anaheim, California, and Pierson lived in Topeka, Kansas, officials said.
Rhoden’s arrest warrant alleges he used tape to bind the hands, legs and mouths of both Pierson and Valdez before concealing them in the enclosed bed of the white pickup. Investigators have not revealed where the men were killed or why they were in the Kennesaw area but said they did not appear to have any connection to the country club.
It’s also unclear exactly how detectives linked Rhoden, an Atlanta resident and aspiring rapper with a newly released mixtape, to the golf course deaths. An agency spokesman said Thursday that most details related to the triple homicide would likely have to come out in court.
Tim Brown, a longtime educator who has lived in the country club community since 2006, said he and his neighbors are relieved an arrest has been made in the case. While the suspect was at large, Brown and his family chose to exercise at Kennesaw’s Swift Cantrell Park instead of in their neighborhood. He also started carrying a handgun with him while walking the dog in their yard, just to be safe.
Now, Brown said he can let his guard down a little and feels more at ease going out his own front door.
“We’re just so fortunate and so blessed to have the hard-working men and women of the Cobb County Police Department,” he said. “I know they’ve been working around the clock on this. It’s great to see their hard work pay off.”
Cox, the police chief, told reporters some of his detectives refused to go home until a suspect was arrested, saying Thursday that “some of them literally slept in their offices since July 3rd, trying to clear this case.”
Many in the community are still eager to find out what happened. At the news conference Thursday, Cox said he understood some were frustrated by the limited information, but “the successful arrest and prosecution” of a suspect was their highest priority.
Rhoden’s first appearance hearing was scheduled for Friday evening, when his bond will be considered, according to the Cobb County Magistrate Court. He is set to appear before a judge virtually from the Cobb County jail.
———
