LAGRANGE, Ga. — LaGrange Police Department have arrested the suspected killer of a 69-year-old man who was taking his routine walk in a park.
Police said Billy Tyler III was taken into custody late Monday morning at 9 p.m. for allegedly murdering Kenneth Dial, 69. Authorities said that investigators determined that Tyler attempted to rob the victim before shooting him and running away.
Officers were called to Sunny Point Park at West Point Lake around 8 a.m. on Monday to investigate a shooting. That's where police found Dial shot. He died at the scene.
Early evidence showed that Dial was on his routine walk at the park, which was about a mile away from his home.
"As do several people they go in that area and walk around. The person who actually located him was an acquaintance of him. Often walked at the same time," LaGrange Police Major Dale Strickland said.
The acquaintance found Dial shot just before 8 a.m., according to police, and was the person who called 911. People in the area reported hearing gunshots in the general vicinity around 7:30 a.m.
Dial's body was found a few hundred feet from the park's entrance on Mooty Bridge Road.
Authorities added that Tyler was on active felony probation for a Robbery that occurred in the metro Atlanta area before he was arrested for the alleged murder.
The case is still active. Anyone with information is still encouraged to call the LaGrange PD at 706-883-2603 or Troup County Crime Stoppers at 706-812-1000.
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