Russell “Rusty” Sneiderman didn’t see it coming.
Footage from surveillance cameras indicates that the Dunwoody father, who had moments before dropped off his son at pre-school, did not see his killer approach, police said Friday. The shooter, a bearded man wearing a hoodie, simply drove away Thursday morning after firing four shots at close range in clear view of the cameras and nearby witnesses.
Police are relying on those onlookers, and anyone who might recognize the killer based on a sketch released Friday evening, to help them solve a sensational crime that, otherwise, offers few obvious avenues for investigation. Because nobody who knew Sneiderman saw it coming, either; they describe the 36-year-old entrepreneur and community volunteer as the unlikeliest of victims.
No one has been arrested in the crime. And no one has offered an answer to the most perplexing question: “Why Rusty?”
"None of this makes any sense," said friend Jonathan Ganz.
Friends and associates describe Sneiderman as an ambitious entrepreneur, a Harvard- educated father of two who worked as a chief executive officer for a Georgia-based child development center and was involved in a plethora of Atlanta medical charities and leadership associations.
He was the kind of guy to help, not hurt, some friends said.
Rick Tuley recalled Sneiderman's generosity in helping him manage finances when his father unexpectedly passed away a few years ago. The men had known eachother since attending a Buckhead Business Association leadership development program together in the mid-2000s.
"He reached out to me at a time of need, unsolicited and completely selfless," said Tuley, of Atlanta. "It wasn’t just one time, it was a lot of times."
Now Tuley is among those searching for answers in a killing that police say appears to have been deliberate.
"All we know is that he [Sneiderman] pulled up about 9:10 in the morning, and the witnesses, they saw another white male walk up to him and start firing," Dunwoody Police Sgt. Mike Carlson said. "There's nothing showing right now that it's random." Witnesses described the killer as a white man about 5-feet-10-inches tall with a beard, he said.
Originally from Ohio, Sneiderman studied business at Indiana University and became a certified public accountant, said longtime friend and college roommate Matt Davidson. He married his college sweetheart, Andrea, and worked in the Chicago offices of a major accounting firm before getting a masters of business administration from Harvard.
The Sneidermans moved to Atlanta about a decade ago, Davidson said, and raise their two young children in a comfortable section of Dunwoody.
Since moving to Atlanta, Sneiderman worked in a variety of jobs, once serving as the chief operating officer for Innovia Group and then as a financial consultant for the Atlanta division of JP Morgan Chase & Co., Davidson said. After he was laid off around 2008, Sneiderman found work as a chief financial officer for Discovery Point, a daycare chain based in Georgia.
Recently though, he'd struck out on his own , Davidson said, adding that he didn't know the details of his friend's latest business venture.
Sneiderman organized at least three small companies, including a consulting firm that bore his name, according to records from the Georgia Secretary of State’s office.
He served on the boards of such medical charities as the Osteogenesis Imperfecta Foundation in Atlanta and the Autism Society of America -- Greater Georgia.
ASAGA President Claire Dees said that Sneiderman sought them out seven or eight years ago because he had family members with autism. At the time, he was in his late 20s.
"For someone as young as him, that was unusual and impressive," she said. "He definitely had a heart for other people."
Family and friends will bury Sneiderman this Sunday, remembering the man they say is an unlikely victim.
"I can guarantee you," Davidson said," no one would have ever predicted this was going to be the way his life would end."
-- Staff writer Ty Tagami and Kristi Swartz contributed to this article.
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