A former minor-league hockey player from North Carolina was charged with murder Friday in the shooting death of a man whose body was found Sunday behind an automotive body repair shop in Stallings in Union County.
Bogdan Rudenko, 32, of south Charlotte was arrested after a four-hour standoff with police early Friday at a Howard Johnson hotel in Colorado Springs, Colo., according to a Colorado Springs police spokesman. Rudenko surrendered about 5:30 a.m. and was being held without bond.
Stallings police don't have a motive in the death and aren't sure of the victim's identity, Police Chief Larke Plyler said. They believe he's Russian-born, in his early 30s, with no family in the U.S.
"We haven't established a motive in this homicide yet," Plyler said, and there are other "persons of interest" in the case.
Stallings police found the dead man when they responded to a break-in call at a body shop early Sunday morning. An autopsy shows he died from a single shot, believed from a handgun, Plyler said. He wouldn't release other details.
Working with the SBI and police in Colorado Springs, Stallings police gathered enough evidence by Thursday to get a murder warrant, find Rudenko and arrest him. Colorado Springs police surrounded his hotel room in the early-morning standoff.
Born in Kazakhstan bordering Russia, Rudenko was a well-traveled minor league hockey player between 1997 and last season, according to the Hockey Database.
A right wing described as 6 feet, 200 pounds, he was with the Charlotte Checkers for the 2004-2005 season, the database says. It shows he played for 15 teams in 16 seasons, including the Colorado Gold Kings (Colorado Springs), Asheville Smoke, Florida Everblades (Estero, Fla.) and, last season, the Twin City Cyclones of Winston-Salem.
He has a court date Monday in Colorado Springs to consider extradition to North Carolina, Plyler said.
Raleigh hit-and-run driver had right of way, but fled after fatal weekend crash
