He better have gotten hired on
Less than a month after being shot multiple times while responding to a disturbance at America’s Car Mart, a hospitalized Bowling Green Police Department Officer Matt Davis told two Kentucky State Police detectives that the person who accompanied him to the incident as a civilian ride-along saved his life. Davis made the disclosure during a police interview with members of the KSP Critical Incident Response Team, who investigated the July 6, 2023, incident, in which Esteban Lowery fired several shots that struck Davis in the legs, arms and torso.
“I would’ve got killed,” Davis told KSP detectives Matt Wise and Ezra Stout during an Aug. 2, 2023, interview at TriStar Skyline Medical Center in Nashville. “There’s no doubt that (my ride-along) saved my life because had he not engaged Mr. Lowery when my legs went down I was at the mercy of Mr. Lowery … if he’d have walked up to me to execute me, I couldn’t have got away.”
Davis’ ride-along, at the time a U.S. Army specialist stationed at Fort Campbell, told investigators that he emerged from hiding behind an office desk with an America’s Car Mart employee during a lull in gunfire to stop the 41-year-old Lowery, subduing him with a choke hold. BGPD officers who responded in the minutes after Davis was wounded heard the ride-along yell out that Lowery was dead and that he had strangled him.
After filing an open records request, the Daily News this week received hundreds of pages of police reports and interview transcripts, along with several hours of recorded interviews with multiple BGPD officers, Davis, his ride along, footage from body cameras worn by Davis and other BGPD officers, security camera footage from the business and police radio traffic.
The documents chronicle the actions taken after Lowery brandished a 9-millimeter pistol in an office of the Russellville Road building barely a minute after Davis encountered him. KSP, which has statewide jurisdiction to investigate incidents involving local police departments in which a person dies, interviewed several people and analyzed the video footage to determine whether Lowery’s death was criminal. The findings of KSP’s investigation were turned over in August to Warren County Commonwealth’s Attorney Kori Beck Bumgarner, and a grand jury that met in October declined to return an indictment, with Bumgarner later issuing a statement that the grand jury “concluded that there was not a sufficient factual or legal basis to levy criminal charges regarding” Lowery’s death.
A state medical examiner’s report determined that Lowery died from manual strangulation and noted two wounds on his body consistent with being struck by prongs from a Taser. A gunshot wound to Lowery’s left foot, and a fracture to that foot, were noted, and the medical examiner’s report documented a bullet entering and exiting his left shoe near the toe. A toxicology report noted the presence of methamphetamine, amphetamine and THC in Lowery’s system.
KSP analysis of body camera footage determined Lowery fired 16 shots in slightly more than six seconds, with further analysis determining that all shots fired at the scene came from Lowery’s gun. Footage from Davis’ body camera showed that the officer did not draw his agency-issued firearm as he scrambled to get away from Lowery and attempted frantically to take cover while warning everyone in the business that Lowery had a gun.
Some body cam footage is at the link
Read more at: 'Nightmare situation': New details revealed in Davis shooting - Bowling Green Daily News
Less than a month after being shot multiple times while responding to a disturbance at America’s Car Mart, a hospitalized Bowling Green Police Department Officer Matt Davis told two Kentucky State Police detectives that the person who accompanied him to the incident as a civilian ride-along saved his life. Davis made the disclosure during a police interview with members of the KSP Critical Incident Response Team, who investigated the July 6, 2023, incident, in which Esteban Lowery fired several shots that struck Davis in the legs, arms and torso.
“I would’ve got killed,” Davis told KSP detectives Matt Wise and Ezra Stout during an Aug. 2, 2023, interview at TriStar Skyline Medical Center in Nashville. “There’s no doubt that (my ride-along) saved my life because had he not engaged Mr. Lowery when my legs went down I was at the mercy of Mr. Lowery … if he’d have walked up to me to execute me, I couldn’t have got away.”
Davis’ ride-along, at the time a U.S. Army specialist stationed at Fort Campbell, told investigators that he emerged from hiding behind an office desk with an America’s Car Mart employee during a lull in gunfire to stop the 41-year-old Lowery, subduing him with a choke hold. BGPD officers who responded in the minutes after Davis was wounded heard the ride-along yell out that Lowery was dead and that he had strangled him.
After filing an open records request, the Daily News this week received hundreds of pages of police reports and interview transcripts, along with several hours of recorded interviews with multiple BGPD officers, Davis, his ride along, footage from body cameras worn by Davis and other BGPD officers, security camera footage from the business and police radio traffic.
The documents chronicle the actions taken after Lowery brandished a 9-millimeter pistol in an office of the Russellville Road building barely a minute after Davis encountered him. KSP, which has statewide jurisdiction to investigate incidents involving local police departments in which a person dies, interviewed several people and analyzed the video footage to determine whether Lowery’s death was criminal. The findings of KSP’s investigation were turned over in August to Warren County Commonwealth’s Attorney Kori Beck Bumgarner, and a grand jury that met in October declined to return an indictment, with Bumgarner later issuing a statement that the grand jury “concluded that there was not a sufficient factual or legal basis to levy criminal charges regarding” Lowery’s death.
A state medical examiner’s report determined that Lowery died from manual strangulation and noted two wounds on his body consistent with being struck by prongs from a Taser. A gunshot wound to Lowery’s left foot, and a fracture to that foot, were noted, and the medical examiner’s report documented a bullet entering and exiting his left shoe near the toe. A toxicology report noted the presence of methamphetamine, amphetamine and THC in Lowery’s system.
KSP analysis of body camera footage determined Lowery fired 16 shots in slightly more than six seconds, with further analysis determining that all shots fired at the scene came from Lowery’s gun. Footage from Davis’ body camera showed that the officer did not draw his agency-issued firearm as he scrambled to get away from Lowery and attempted frantically to take cover while warning everyone in the business that Lowery had a gun.
Some body cam footage is at the link
Read more at: 'Nightmare situation': New details revealed in Davis shooting - Bowling Green Daily News