Former Hockey Player Arrested in Colorado for N.C. Murder

By Alicia Cruz
Theblackurbantimes

A stand-off in Colorado Springs, Colorado yesterday led to the arrest of a former minor league Hockey player from Russia wanted in connection to a murder in Stallings, North Carolina.

Bogdan Nikoevich Rudenko, 32, a minor-league hockey player was arrested after the hours-long standoff and placed in the El Paso County jail without bond on a fugitive from justice warrant out of Stallings, N.C. for First Degree murder.

Rudenko, a native of Kamenogorski, Kazachstan, is listed in the Hockey player database as a "minor pro" and once played for the Colorado Gold Kings and the Twin City Cyclones of Winston Salem, N.C.

The Cyclones stopped playing in March 2009 citing the economic downturn as the reason.

Stallings Chief of Police, Larke Plyler said the standoff began at a Howard Johnson hotel in Colorado Springs, but he was unable to comment on how Colorado police came into contact with Rudenko in the first place.

A homicide investigation has been underway in Stallings (Mecklenburg county), N.C. since December 20 when police found the body of a man behind a building on Independence street. The man had been shot to death. This is the first homicide in Stallings in 2009.

Union City Deputy Haney confirmed for theblackurbantimes that there is an active warrant for First Degree Murder for Bogdan Nikoevich Rudenko, but stated that the warrant is out of Stallings, N.C. (See Here)

The body of the deceased man was transported to the N.C. Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy, but his identity has not been disclosed to the media pending further investigation and there has been no word on how Rudenko and the victim knew one another.


Chief Plyler added that there are still other persons of “interest” in the homicide investigation.