Kentucky State Police have released a partially redacted video of gunman Esteban Lowery shooting Bowling Green Police Officer Matt Davis multiple times at a local car dealership.
According to reports, Lowery told the dealership he was a sovereign citizen and demanded that they give him a vehicle.
When Officer Davis arrived in response to a call from the dealership, Lowery confronted Officer Davis, pulled a gun and began shooting at Officer Davis.
Officer Davis was able to deploy his taser and monetarily immobilize Lowery.
A civilian ride-along, Ioanis Cuko, then took action and began struggling with Lowery, trying to disarm him.
Cuko told police that during the struggle, he strangled Lowery to death.
Officer Davis survived his wounds and is recovering.
Summary of event from the Bowling Green True Crime Facebook page.
Autopsy reveals Esteban Lowery shot himself in the foot while shooting BGPD Officer Matt Davis and that Esteban died from manual strangulation on July 6th, 2023.
12-13-24
Sam Culper
On July 6th, 2023, a critical police-involved incident occurred at America’s Car Mart on Russellville Road where a person was causing a disturbance and refusing to leave the property. The Bowling Green Police Department was called by a store employee and requested the person be removed from the property. A police officer responded and after a short interaction with the suspect the suspect pulled a gun and shot the police officer multiple times. A citizen, who was a ride-along, then became entangled with the suspect in a physical altercation and the suspect died.
Immediately following this incident, as is customary with many law enforcement agencies, there was not a lot of information given out by law enforcement. Withholding detailed information to the public is a common practice in the criminal justice world because it can taint the investigation by altering people’s mindsets before they’ve ever been interviewed, it can allow criminal offenders not yet in custody know to destroy evidence, make the investigation more difficult, etc.
Investigators sometimes don’t even have all the facts themselves and it takes time for them to compile the information and have a better understanding of what occurred. Investigators have to interview multiple witnesses, process the entire scene with photographs and video, apply for search warrants, and sometimes wait for the results of search warrants if they involve search warrants for electronic devices or social media accounts. Medical examinations and toxicology reports take time. Sometimes it takes up to a year to be able to compile all that information to present the information they compiled to Commonwealth Attorneys and Grand Juries for review. Nothing to us stands out as unusual in that process.
However, across the Commonwealth of Kentucky and parts of the United States, there are law enforcement agencies who have made it a matter of policy of accountability and transparency to, in a reasonably and timely manner, release body camera footage following an officer-involved critical incident.
Nationally, we see many body camera recordings of things like officer-involved shootings just mere days after the event occurred. Many times, these agencies compile the footage and all relevant information that wouldn’t harm the investigation and craft it into a critical incident community briefing format where a spokesperson from the agency or municipality talks about some of the details leading up to the event, what occurred during the event, and show body camera footage and sometimes crime scene photographs.
The citizens of Bowling Green did not get to see any of that. Not even a year after the incident occurred. Not even after it was publicly disclosed, the case was no longer under investigation and was considered closed.
In light of the national trend for agencies to be more transparent, we do have a problem with that part. We believe our local agency administrators should be more transparent with the community and adopt practices that reflect what many other agencies across the United States do following an officer involved critical incident. It should not singularly take a news reporting agency to inform the public with details of what has happened in an officer-involved critical incident. That more detailed information should come directly from those agencies as it fosters a better relationship with community members and prevents rumors from escalating. Rumors can spread quickly in the immediate aftermath of an incident and then a year later after people’s attention span is long gone and the actual facts come out the people are sometimes not motivated to seek out those facts and will forever believe the rumors they heard right after the incident.
We released an article on the incident about fifteen days later that contained some detailed information. That article was the only informative article giving a glimpse into what occurred that day. Even a year later after the incident no other news reporting entities were able to release an article with any details as close to ours because the police agencies involved publicly refused to release any detailed information.
Since then, we obtained records through the Kentucky State Police via an open records request after the case was formally closed. We can now prove that our initial reporting of the incident was accurate. Just because we don’t always have documents to show as proof it doesn’t mean our reporting is inaccurate or not legitimate, as some have insinuated. The records given to us were voluminous. They were more than what we asked for. It has taken time to review all of it and piece things together so they’re in order so that you can watch and hear things in order without having to figure it out for yourself. The data dump given to us was not entirely organized and in order. Sometimes that happens. Here is the account of what occurred that day based off the open records.
Thursday, July 6th, 2023, started like any normal day for B-Shift Officers with the Bowling Green Police Department. The weather that day was slightly cloudy and was a typically hot and humid July day in Kentucky. It was another routine day for Officer Matt Davis. He arrived to work early as normal and used that early arrival time to sign in to his mobile data terminal to be able to access his time clock and the computer assisted dispatch software that shows all the police calls in the city. After checking the call list and clocking into service, he got out of his cruiser and performed a spark test for his taser, which all officers are required to do before starting the work day. Officer Davis went inside the police station and went to his normal seat in the briefing room. Often times officers will sit in the very same spot for all shift briefings even though seats are not assigned.
The shift supervisor for that day was Sgt. Marc Keiser. Sgt. Keiser approached Officer Davis before briefing started and informed him that there was a ride-along there. A ride-along, or rider, is a term used to describe participants of the ride-along program. The program allows people to ride around in the police car with officers as they go from call to call. This program is for citizens to be able to see first-hand what goes on in police work.
Sometimes people who have an interest in working in law enforcement do a ride-along to see if the job is something they would really be interested in. Sgt. Keiser told Officer Davis the ride-along was in the military and thought the two of them would get along. Officer Davis went to the front lobby to greet the ride-along and escort him back to the briefing room.
The ride-along was Ioanis Cuko, who was a Specialist in the United States Army stationed in Fort Campbell, KY. Mr. Cuko was participating in a ride-along because he was interested in moving to Bowling Green and joining the BGPD when his service with the Army was over. After briefing, the officers departed the briefing room and got to work. Officer Davis badge number is 145 and his radio designator was Baker 39. Baker stands for B-shift and the 39 stands for the district and his ranking in that district.
Officer Davis and Cuko went out the cruiser to move things around to make room for Cuko to ride in the front seat. Officer Davis began working on a follow up with stolen property and called a victim to give them an update on the case. The two then headed to district 30 in the West Side. Officer Davis gave a brief explanation of where they were in the city and went over the dos and don’ts for ride-alongs as far as his personal preferences, such as not wanting them to get out on traffic stops during the first contact, and other things of his preference due to tactical and officer safety considerations. Each officer may be different in some things they allow riders to do.
For Esteban Lowery, according to records released by KSP, not much was known about how his day had started. In an interview with his mother, father, and a cousin, the three family members stated to KSP detectives that they had not had much contact with Esteban and hadn’t seen him in a while. They stated they did not know where he lived and did not know if he was homeless or not. They also could not give any information about where he worked. His father stated in the interview that he doesn’t ask those kinds of questions. What is known about Esteban on the day of the incident, is Esteban spoke telephonically with an assistant sales manager of America’s Car Mart, according to that manager in an interview with KSP detectives. The manager described him as being bubbly and excited and said there was no indication anything was amiss.
After being briefed on the district they were in and the dos and don’ts for the ride-along, Officer Davis and the ride-along began looking at the warrants list and arrested three people on warrants. Officer Davis and the ride-along went to the jail to drop the prisoner off. After completing tasks at the jail, they went back into the service and went to another call to back-up another officer dealing with a difficult person. As they were traveling down Russellville Road in front of McDonalds, a person walking on foot was very aggressive and yelled “fuck you” towards them. Officer Davis could not stop right then and there since he was enroute to back up another officer with a difficult person. Officer Davis advised dispatch of the aggressive person and asked for a unit to be dispatched to check on the person. In an interview with KSP, Officer Davis said he could not get a good look at the person’s face because it happened so quickly but he could clearly hear “fuck you” and could sense the person was very aggressive.
A short time after the cursing, near closing time for the Car Mart, Esteban arrived at the car store on Russellville Road. He was described as looking like a normal person and that he smiled, according to the assistant sales manager.
The witness described the smile as odd and sinister and it made her feel uncomfortable. Esteban was taken to an office with a sales associate to do a “quick app” for assessing customers wanting to purchase a vehicle. The associate began their process of clerical work and described Esteban as being chill and compliant when providing information.
Esteban pulled a large binder from his backpack and had a stack of pseudo legal paperwork indicating he was a sovereign citizen and other documents that he tried to portray as giving him the legal right to take possession of a vehicle that he had never paid for. Esteban had created a document that he said was an irrevocable trust and placed vehicle information in it, which in turn was to mean he was the owner of the vehicle. He demanded a bill of sale and the keys to a 2014 Chevy Tahoe that was on the lot. Esteban was told that’s not how it works and he has to pay for the vehicle. Esteban countered by saying it was his due to his irrevocable trust and that everything in the world is abandoned property and whoever writes it down on paper gets and keeps it for free. The associate took the paperwork to a general manager. The general manager reaffirmed to the associate that would not happen and the two of them returned to the office where Esteban was at. The general manger told him he had to make a down payment on a car and Esteban was described as becoming excited, animated, and very argumentative. Esteban reiterated his assertion of everything being abandoned property and that if they sold the vehicle to someone else, they were going to jail since the car belonged to him. Esteban asserted that vehicle titles in Kentucky mean nothing and that all vehicles are abandoned property.
Later in an interview the general manager said that in 22 years of business he had never heard anyone say that before. Esteban also added during this argument that American currency means nothing and the only thing of value was a postal stamp. The general manager told him he would send that paperwork to their legal team for review. Esteban became more animated. The general manager reiterated to him that he would send the paperwork to the legal department and that he needed to leave the property. Esteban asserted he was an attorney de facto. Esteban continued to demand the bill of sale and keys for the vehicle. A sales associate across the hall with customers ushered the customers out of the office and into another area of the dealership due to the commotion. The general manager asked a sales associate to call the police. The associate called the police and described Esteban to the dispatchers. They described the suspect had barbed wire around their arm.
Later, this barbed wire was identified as being a piece of copper jewelry that was a facsimile of barb wire. The sales associate left the office and went to the lobby to wait for police while the general manager remained in the office with Esteban. The general manager in an interview described Esteban going up and down emotionally and could tell there was something wrong with him but didn’t know if it was drug induced or from being mentally unstable.
Esteban told the general manager that he had done this before in the state of Georgia and openly described it as stealing. He said he stole a 2019 Corvette. The general manager asked him if he had a 2019 Corvette then why did he want a 2014 Tahoe. Esteban said he wanted the older vehicle because of its color. Esteban asked the general manager if he was a slave since he worked for the dealership. The manager told Esteban that some people could view him as slave but he didn’t see himself as a slave and he enjoyed his career. Esteban said they were both just slaves in this world.
After completing the call where he assisted another officer, Officer Davis went back in service and then dispatch put out a disturbance call at 1930 Russellville Road, America’s Car Mart.
Dispatch initially gave the call to Baker 13 as primary officer and Baker 45 as secondary backing officer. Those two officers radioed to dispatch they were enroute. Officer Davis alluded that he thought the person at the Car Mart was the same person they had encountered along Russellville Road in front of McDonald’s. Officer Davis advised dispatch over the radio he was enroute to provide back-up to the responding officers. Officer Dale Barbiea heard the call come out and also advised dispatch over the radio that he, too, was en route to back the responding officers. Right after this, dispatch put out another call on Lovers Lane and dispatched Officer Dale Barbiea to that call. When Officer Barbiea answered the radio, he gave his current location. This is a common practice for officers when they answer the radio after being hailed. When someone calls their unit number over the radio, they will respond with where their current location is.
This tactic allows everyone to be spatially aware of officer’s locations and allows them to make sudden changes as far as who will be going where to what call. The officers who were initially dispatched to the Car Mart advised over the radio their location after Officer Barbiea announced his location and that they were closer to the Lovers Lane call and that Officer Barbiea could continue to be enroute to backup Officer Davis.
Officer Davis was the first officer to arrive on scene and he parked his cruiser off to the side of the business. He approached the business on foot with the ride-along shadowing at a distance behind him as per instructions. Officer Davis entered the business and was directed to an office to the rear of the business. In his interview with KSP, Officer Davis stated that based off everyone’s demeanor he did not think things were very serious and that the situation would end the way it did that day.
As he approached the office, he immediately recognized Esteban as the person who had earlier yelled at him. Officer Davis recognized Esteban not from just that but also from prior police encounters. In one instance about a month prior to this incident, Officer Davis was called to the public library to ban him from the property per library management. Although Officer Davis didn’t recall it at the time, a records check conducted indicated that in 2009 Officer Davis had given Lowery a citation for no vehicle insurance and no registration plates.
A records check also indicated that in 2023, Lowery caused a disturbance at Gary Force Honda.
Officer Davis stepped into the doorway in a non-aggressive, non-confrontation manner. Before Officer Davis could say anything, Esteban was sitting in a chair and on the phone with someone asking them to come pick him up because he was “about to go off on these fucking police,” and glared menacingly at Officer Davis. Officer Davis calmly greeted Esteban by saying “hey, how are you doing?” and “what’s going on, man?” Esteban, while still on the phone and looking menacingly at Officer Davis, responded by saying “shit. I don’t know why you talkin to me.”
Officer Davis said “well, they called about you.” Esteban asserted to Officer Davis that he has no authority and began trying to explain in sovereign citizen legalize why Officer Davis did not have authority. Officer Davis asked the manager what their stance was and as the manager was explaining what had been happening, Esteban continued to ramble and repeatedly said “bye” to Officer Davis and said “I don’t need you, bye!”
Officer Davis then attempts to de-escalate Esteban by changing the subject and asking him what happened to his arm. During this whole time Officer Davis maintained a cool composure. In a KSP interview with the manager, the manager described Officer Davis as being very calm and professional. Other witnesses had similar recollections. In a KSP interview with Officer Davis, Davis said he was attempting to de-escalate Esteban.
Esteban told Officer Davis he did not have to talk to him because Officer Davis was a color of law and that Esteban himself was an attorney. Esteban reaffirmed he was an attorney and told Officer Davis to stop talking to him. Officer Davis told the manager he would wait for another officer and they would take care of it. Esteban looked at Officer Davis and said “I aint goin nowhere, I promise you that.” Esteban told Officer Davis “If you try to put handcuffs on me, I promise you I will make you stand down” and continued to assert that Officer Davis had no authority. Esteban stood up from his seated position while ranting about authority and asked Officer Davis “so what you wanna do?” Officer Davis calmly said “just hang out.”
Esteban said he didn’t have to go anywhere and that he could go wherever he wants. Officer Davis told Esteban just to hang out where he was and Esteban said he was not going to be controlled like that and asked Officer Davis if he would move out of the way. Officer Davis repeated to Esteban just to hang out where he was and Esteban said that Officer Davis doesn’t get to tell him what to do and that instead Esteban gets to tell Officer Davis what to do because Officer Davis is a public servant.
As Esteban is saying this, he grabs his backpack and begins to place the straps over his shoulders. Esteban ranted further about not being told what to do and Officer Davis reiterated for him to stay where he was and Esteban said no. Esteban laid a stack of his pseudo legal paperwork on the table and briefly spoke to the manager about the paperwork. Esteban then turned and walked towards Officer Davis and attempted to physically push past Officer Davis.
Officer Davis held his hand out as Esteban began to move into Officer Davis and told him to hold on. Esteban slapped Officer Davis hand downwards and told Officer Davis not to touch him.
Esteban stepped back away from Davis and Davis remained where he was at in the doorway. As Esteban was stepping backwards, Officer Davis told him to sit down. Officer Davis was repeating his verbal command to Esteban when Esteban suddenly reached to his waistband, pulled a semiautomatic pistol out, racked the slide on it, and quickly brought it up into a firing grip and had it pointed towards Officer Davis head.
Officer Davis quickly raises his left hand and makes contact with Esteban’s hand holding the gun and shoves them up and away from him. Officer Davis quickly backs away yelling verbal commands to Esteban and tactically retreats down the hallway.
In his interview with KSP, Ofc Davis said it seemed like things went into slow motion when Esteban pulled his gun out and he could slowly see the slide being racked back. After Esteban pulled the gun, Davis said he felt like he could not engage in a gun battle in that office because there was an employee in the room who was within close proximity.
He stated that he feared the employee could be shot to death in crossfire. He also said he had debated on whether or not he could perform a disarming technique to remove the gun from Esteban based off training he had received. He said he decided to retreat out of the office.
Officer Davis retreats into another office room two office spaces away, yells into his radio “headquarters, he has a gun!” Then Esteban can be seen advancing down the hallway through the office window towards the office door with his gun pointed at Officer Davis and yelling at Davis that he’s a public servant and yelling for him to stand down.
Officer Davis retreats out of that second office space and back into the hallway facing the direction of the lobby. The ride-along had also retreated and went into an office space next to the one where the incident started. The ride-along pushed the sales associate down under the desk to protect them. There were multiple office spaces in that hallway. Davis proceeded down the hallway and began shouting “Esteban, quit! Esteban, quit!”
Officer Davis entered a third office but quickly exited it, continued to retreat down hallway away from Esteban, and began giving commands for Esteban to get down. Officer Davis reached an open area leading to an office and an office employee can be seen through the window. Officer Davis shouts to the employee to take cover and then he turns to face Esteban with a taser device.
Esteban has stalked Officer Davis the entire time and is still approaching Officer Davis with his firearm pointed at Officer Davis in a firing stance. The two of them fire almost simultaneously and Officer Davis can be heard saying “taser, taser” before the audio portion of the body camera was redacted by the KSP Records Division and the video has a censoring blur box placed over it causing the rest of the images to become blurry and difficult to make out exact details.
KSP did not provide an exact reasoning behind why this portion of the video is muted and blurred but did say some records were redacted due to graphic nature. However, in my review of hundreds of body camera recordings from across the nation involving officers being shot in the line of duty, this is a very common practice.
In fact, often times the videos aren’t even released at all. The remainder of the body camera footage shows Officer Davis falling to the ground after being shot and then squirming around on the ground as Esteban approaches the downed Officer and continues to fire rounds into him. That footage is also blurred by KSP Records Division, but you can still see Officer Davis and Esteban.
In a KSP investigative report, a screen shot of the body camera footage is taken as Officer Davis is on the ground and you can see Esteban standing over him and firing his gun at him. The freeze frame shows the flame and smoke coming from the pistol. In the surveillance footage, after Officer Davis turns and points his taser at Esteban, the video blurs slightly but you can see the office window shatter from a bullet fired from Esteban’s gun towards Officer Davis.
You can also see the dust of pulverized glass puffing out as bullets penetrate the window. You can see Officer Davis move to his right and then almost simultaneously him and Esteban fall to the ground. The taser device appeared to have the desired effect and achieved what is known as neuro muscular incapacitation. It only lasts for five seconds. During this time frame of falling, the taser flies out of Officer Davis’s hands and slides across the floor. This action also could have caused the taser probe wires to break, thus causing the connection to be lost.
Esteban quickly gets back up and advances towards Officer Davis and begins firing at Officer Davis as he’s laying on the floor wounded. After firing his last round into Officer Davis, Esteban turns around and starts to walk towards the office rooms where the manager, sales associate, and ride-along are still within. A total of sixteen shell casings were later recovered from the scene. Esteban fired sixteen rounds in 6.037 seconds. The average time between shots was 0.377 seconds.
The rest of Officer Davis body cam footage shows mostly the ceiling since he is laying on his back after being shot. A few people later on can be seen as they’re providing medical care to him before his camera, gun belt, and other equipment are removed from him before he is taken away to the ambulance. His equipment and camera were placed in the back of a police vehicle as a means to safeguard the evidence and keep his firearms locked up and secure.
During the interview with KSP, Officer Davis mentions during his interview he was experiencing auditory exclusion and did not recall hearing a lot of things. This is common in gunfights. It is also not unusual for people to get some details out of order or even completely exclude some details, and experience other things such as auditory exclusion, when they have been subjected to a fight, flight, freeze response stimulus. The stimulus response causes the body to release a lot of adrenaline and cortisol, which can dramatically increase the heart rate and effect brain function. Sharper focus, visual clarity, slow-motion time, temporary paralysis, dissociation, memory loss, and intrusive thoughts can all occur with some people. It can cause people to perceive things as being in “slow motion” or things occurring very quickly.
The heart rate increase in response to fear is correlated with a deterioration of motor skills and senses like vision and hearing. This phenomenon is detailed in many publications and studies, including Lt. Col. Dave Grossman in his books “On Combat” and “On Killing.” Lt. Col. Dave Grossman was a West Point Academy psychiatrist.
In a KSP interview with Sergeant Jennie McShane, she stated there were many gaps in her memory during her involvement with the incident where she entered the building and began rendering medical aid to Officer Davis and then later performed crime scene control functions. The ride-along also stated in his interview that he had no idea where the gun went after he got physically involved with Esteban, however another witness testimony from the general manager indicated that what happened to the gun happened right there in Cuko’s presence as he was fighting with Esteban.
It’s important for readers to understand what happens to the human brain and body during fight, flight, freeze because in some of the interviews there are things not mentioned that occur on video, there are things that are mentioned that don’t seem to occur on video, there are things not mentioned that you would think would be sensed by them, etc. Just because someone cannot recall an exact detailed memory of a critical incident it doesn’t mean they’re being untruthful.
Even in regular eyewitness testimony studies it has been found that eyewitness testimony is not always reliable and there have been many studies and publications on the matter.
After shooting Officer Davis, Esteban began to walk back towards the offices. The only information about what happens next is from statements made by the general manager and the ride-along.
The only recordings during some of this portion is from a 911 call made the sales associate where Cuko can be heard yelling in the background for someone to come help him. No camera footage available for the hallway area. It never existed in the first place.
In a short amount of time multiple things occurred. The ride-along could observe Esteban through the office windows coming towards them. In an interview with KSP, Cuko said he was in fear for his life. Cuko went after Esteban.
The general manager had begun to step out of his office to see what had happened. Esteban collided into the general manager as he stepped out of the office. Cuko then wrapped his arms around Esteban and began struggling with him to keep control over his arm and the gun that was still in Esteban’s hand.
As the two were struggling, the general manager kicked the gun out of Esteban’s hand. The general manager then kicked the gun even harder after it hit the ground so as to get it as far away from Esteban as possible.
In an interview with Cuko, he said him and Esteban exchanged punches within each other and that Cuko then attempted to place Esteban into a choke hold to gain control of him. As the two struggled and wrestled around, according to Cuko, they ended up on the ground. Cuko said in an interview that Esteban began crawling and dragging Cuko with him and they ended up in an office room.
Cuko also said he did not know what happened to the gun. Cuko and Esteban remained in a physical altercation in the office for an extended amount of time. Also in that office room was a sales associate who was hiding under their desk. This was the associate that Cuko had initially pushed under the desk to protect them. Cuko said in his interview that he began screaming for help because he wanted someone to come help him restrain Esteban as Esteban continued to struggle against him.
No one came to his aide. Cuko said in his interview that he yelled so loud for so long that in the days following the incident he had lost his voice. The general manager after kicking the gun away went towards the lobby and briefly considered what he should with the taser he saw laying on the ground. The general manager began acting upon the company’s emergency plan by having the employees evacuate the building and proceed to an adjacent business. He also evacuated the building.
While Cuko and Esteban are on the ground involved in a physical altercation, the sales associate hiding under the desk called 911.
In the recorded 911 call you can hear Cuko yelling loudly for help. Another 911 call is also placed from a sales associate outside and they describe to the dispatcher that there is an active shooter in the building and they heard multiple gunshots being fired.
Earlier, when Officer Davis alerted dispatch of Esteban having a gun, the dispatch-center initiated officer in distress procedures and activated an alert tone, called a marker, over the radio and announced for all police officers to hold their radio traffic for the units at Car Mart. When an officer makes a quick, excited noise over the radio every other officer knows something is going on.
It didn’t take dispatch sending out an alert tone for officers not busy on other calls to start heading towards Officer Davis. Officers responding to his assistance call activated their lights and siren and quickly proceeded to his location.
In a recorded radio communication, an officer calls out Officer Davis’s badge number and asks if he’s okay. Officer Davis was never able to respond on the radio. It is a heart sinking feeling when an officer never responds over the radio when being hailed.
Officer Barbiea, the officer who had been enroute to back Officer Davis, was the first officer to arrive on scene after the officer in distress protocol was initiated. Officer Barbiea was immediately met by people outside the store who told him where to go. He proceeded to the front door area and made entry into the building. Upon entering the building, in his body camera footage the sounds of the ride-along yelling for help can be heard.
Also, in the body camera footage you can see Officer Davis laying on the ground in a corner. In an interview with KSP, Officer Barbiea said he observed a body in the corner but did not immediately recognize it as Officer Davis. Officer Barbiea began to make his way down the hallway towards the screaming and stated he did not in that moment recall the fact that Officer Davis had a ride-along with him that day and initially thought it was the suspect barricaded in a back room. Officer Barbiea moved back towards Officer Davis, whom he then recognized as being Officer Davis, and took a position of cover and began giving positive affirmations to Officer Davis. Officer Barbiea made a radio call to dispatch and advised an officer was down, suspect barricaded in back room, and to send an ambulance.
Back at headquarters the dispatch room was bustling with activity. Dispatchers, under controlled chaos, performed an amazing job by simultaneously operating the radios with officers on the scene, operating the phone lines to contact the ambulance service, answer questions from another dispatch center asking what was going on and if they needed assistance, and also answering normal every day phone calls coming into the dispatch center.
In a recorded phone line from the dispatch center while all of this chaos of an officer being shot is going on, a person calls the station and asks for an officer by name for an unrelated matter.
Despite the extreme graveness of the situation at hand, the dispatcher calmly spoke with the citizen and informed them they were going to place them on a brief hold.
Ofc Jackson Price was the second officer to make entry into the building. As he entered the lobby with his patrol rifle, Officer Barbiea shouted at to him to hold his position and informed him of where he thought the suspect was. As they’re covering the hallway, Cuko is attempting to communicate with them and sticks his hands out the door frame.
In his interview he said he was afraid the police officers might mistake him for the suspect and shoot him. Cuko emerged from the office with hands up and yelled that the suspect was in the room and that he had detained him. The officers ordered him to the ground and to crawl to them.
Cuko complied and as he was crawling towards them, he told them the suspect was dead. During this time, Sgt. Keiser made entry into the building and made his way towards them. Sgt. Keiser began communicating with the ride-along as the other two officers approached the office where Esteban and the sales-associate were located. The ride-along stated he killed the suspect. Sgt. Keiser asked if he had shot him and the ride-along said no and that he had strangled him.
As this was occurring, Sergeant Jennie McShane entered the building and Sgt. Keiser directed her to begin providing aid to Officer Davis. The other two officers made entry into the office room and one began to take Esteban into custody and the other noticed a person hiding under the desk. Not knowing whether or not the person was a suspect or victim, the person was ordered to keep their hands up and come out. Officer Price broke away and made his way back to Officer Davis to assist in providing aid since he had his tactical first aid kit with him.
Other officers and officials began arriving and entering the building fairly quicky. A KSP Trooper who had been at the jail and witnessed a BGPD officer take off running to his car followed the officer to the scene, an EMS crew from Logan County who had been driving by decided to stop, MedCenter EMS personnel dispatched to the scene, and a BGPD Major entered the building.
One officer had been off duty and noticed several police cars zooming past lights and siren. He turned on his radio to see what was going and heard dispatch saying ‘active shooter’ at the Car Mart. That officer was wearing only shorts a t-shirt but he threw on his ballistic vest, grabbed his gun, and sped off towards the scene. Another off-duty officer who was in a personal vehicle also responded to the scene. Sgt. Keiser directed the ride-along to go with the Major. Meanwhile, Officer Barbiea began searching for Esteban’s weapon and began assessing him.
Officers Becic and Officer Matt Hughes entered the building and came to the office where Sgt. Keiser and Officer Barbiea were located. They picked Esteban up in an emergency carry and moved him from the office area to the outside parking lot area They continued to search for the gun and then noticed that Esteban did not have a pulse. An EMS crew came over to where they were and began rendering medical aid to Esteban.
Officers and EMS worked on providing medical care to Officer Davis. He calmly asked them to get him out of there as they worked to control the extensive bleeding. Sergeant McShane had applied a tourniquet to his arm and was attempting to make one final rotation on the windlass when it slipped out of her hands because of all the blood she was covered in.
Once they stabilized Officer Davis, he was moved to a stretcher and rushed to an ambulance outside. Meanwhile, officers outside had been blocking traffic on Russellville Road and had been getting ready to perform an escort for the ambulance that would be taking Officer Davis to the helipad. Once Officer Davis was loaded up into the ambulance, the ambulance and escorting police cars sped away. Other officers who were further away stopped at intersections and blocked traffic so they would have clear intersections to go through.
They rushed Officer Davis to an awaiting air ambulance, where he was flown to Skyline Trauma Center in Nashville, TN. Due to space constrictions on the helicopter, no one else but the medical crew and Officer Davis could be in the helicopter. One officer was assigned to rush to the Skyline Trauma Center in Tennessee to be there with Officer Davis. That officer drove lights and siren the entire way to the hospital.
In the following days, a BGPD Officer was always there at the hospital with Officer Davis and his family as he underwent numerous surgeries and recovered. This is a lesser known but common practice in law enforcement. Even when police officers die in the line of duty, an officer or officers are often assigned to stay with the officer at the funeral home and until the burial ceremony. This act is a testament to the brotherhood in law enforcement and signifies no man left behind.
Back at the scene, more and more officers and command staff began arriving. Officers were sent to go to where Officer Davis’s immediately family were located to pick them up and take them to the hospital. Sending officers to be with an officer’s family is a common practice when an officer is injured or killed in line of duty. It is another testament to the brotherhood in law enforcement and the unspoken expectation of taking care of that officer’s family when that officer is unable to.
In law enforcement, the immediately family of an officer is also impacted by the world of policing.
They have to endure the pains of the profession their loved one is employed by as well. In the following days, the community came together and raised money for Officer Davis’s family so they could be able to afford to stay with their loved one. Lodging, fuel, meals, and other expenses add up over several days and agencies and municipalities generally don’t have a budget to cover those types of expenses for the surviving family. The community showed their love and support for their police officers and raised a handsome amount of money so the family would not have to worry about lodging, meal, or fuel expenses.
The scene of the incident remained locked down for several hours. BGPD handed over control of the scene to KSP by their own doing. It was not a requirement by any law. In fact, it is a common practice for law enforcement agencies to request a separate agency to conduct an investigation into one of their critical incidents. Most of all the BGPD Officers went back in service and the main radio channel was opened back up for normal every day operations at six thirty-five in the afternoon. KSP remained until very late.
The Kentucky State Police Critical Incident Response Team responded to the scene to take over the investigation. The scene was photographed, video graphed, and sketched. Some initial witness statements were taken. Evidence was collected.
At the hospital where Esteban Lowery had been taken to, he was pronounced deceased by Warren County Coroner’s Office Deputy Coroner Brad Birge. The hospital had tried their best to revive Esteban. At one point they were able to achieve a mild pulse but it didn’t last for long.
Evidence collection and preservation actions were taken. Esteban’s left shoe and sock were removed and a “toe tag” was affixed to him. His body was sealed in a body bag and taken to the Kentucky Medical Examiner’s Office in Louisville, KY.
The next day a post mortem examination was conducted at eight o’clock in the morning by Dr. Darius Arabadjief. At the autopsy, there were signs of medical intervention. An IV lead and intubation tube were still in him. The doctor noted that there were abrasions and contusions on the chest and two punctures in his torso consistent with taser probes.
Also, during the examination, it was discovered that Esteban had a gunshot wound in his foot. A bullet had entered the top of his shoe, went through his foot, and exited out of the bottom of his shoe. A round count was conducted on Officer Davis’s primary weapon and his backup weapon.
All rounds were accounted for. In the videos, Officer Davis never fires a firearm. He only discharges a taser. It appears as though that at some point while Esteban was shooting at Officer Davis, he somehow shot himself in the foot, and it was most likely when Esteban was laying on the floor after being hit with the taser. It was likely between the sixth and tenth round he fired at Officer Davis.
The autopsy was finished after ten o’clock. Toxicology reports came back at a later time and showed that Esteban’s blood tested positive for methamphetamine, THC, and delta 9.
It was determined that Esteban had been strangled to death.
In the next several months investigators continued their investigation. Esteban Lowery was laid to rest in the veteran’s section of the cemetery and given military burial. Esteban had briefly served in the Kentucky National Guard. Officer Matt Davis underwent multiple surgeries and months of rehabilitation. After several months it became a lot clearer to the investigators on what happened that day.
At the conclusion of the investigation, the ride-along was never charged with any crimes because it was determined that no crime had been committed. The ride-along used justifiable force in self-defense and defense of others.
Under Kentucky law, use of deadly physical force against another person is justified if the person fears they are about to be or are being murdered, assaulted in a manner that would cause severe physical injury, raped, kidnapped, being disposed of their dwelling, or if a person is setting fire to their building.
Due to Esteban having shot a police officer multiple times, everyone else in the building had a legitimate fear of being killed or seriously injured by him.
Although none of them knew it at the time, Esteban had an additional pistol magazine in his backpack, along with a box of ammunition, and had sixty two rounds of ammunition on his person. In an ATF firearms investigation it was determined the pistol had originally been purchased in Owensboro by someone else. The pistol had then later been stolen.
In interviews with witnesses, they were all in fear that they could’ve died by the hands of Esteban.
Cuko said if he didn’t take action, he feared he would also die. Cuko in his interview was asked if anything could’ve been done different to have a different outcome and the only thing, he said could’ve been done different is other people coming to help him when he asked for help.
If others had helped him, Esteban might not have died. Kentucky is also a stand your ground state. There are no requirements for a person to retreat where they have a legal right to be. It is also in Kentucky law that if a person is justified in using deadly force against another person, then they are immune from any liability. Once the legal determination was made, the case was closed and the case became subject to open records law.
And now you know.