‘WE WANT THE TRUTH:’ Family of Kentucky man who died during police confrontation seeks answers

Family members of Esteban Lowery, who died last year in an incident with police that left Bowling Green Police Department Officer Matt Davis with multiple gunshot wounds, gathered Tuesday outside the Warren County Justice Center to demand more details as to what happened.

Davis and a BGPD-approved ride-along were responding to a disturbance call at America’s Car-Mart on Russellville Road on July 6, 2023, that culminated in the death of the 41-year-old Lowery.

Since then, the family says little information has been released to give them an idea of what transpired or who was responsible for Lowery’s death.

Kentucky State Police is leading the investigation into the incident.

Lowery’s mother, Lori Lowery, said she has received a death certificate listing her son’s cause of death as manual strangulation.

“The family has no answers. We want the truth – we want everything,” Lori Lowery said while holding a framed picture of her son. “We cannot get police reports. We cannot get coroner reports. Every time we speak to someone, (they say it’s) still under investigation. Justice for Esteban is all we want … we all have issues. We all have mistakes, but still Esteban Lowery is and was a human being.”

John Barnett, a civil rights activist who came to Bowling Green last year for demonstrations calling for the arrest of Carolyn Bryant Donham, whose actions in 1955 touched off the infamous lynching of Emmet Till in Mississippi and who was found to have lived in Bowling Green at that time, returned Tuesday for Lowery’s family.

Barnett said he is seeking a police report detailing the incident involving Lowery, Davis and the ride-along and plans to put the family in touch with an attorney, mentioning Malik Shabazz of Black Lawyers for Justice, an organization that took part in demonstrations calling the service of an open arrest warrant against Bryant.

“It’s been a whole year, and we don’t know what happened. We don’t know who did what,” Barnett said. “Esteban was challenged that day with some issues, but it doesn’t justify you denying (his mother) a police report and getting justice for this mother.”

KSP headquarters in Frankfort did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

KSP released information last August that a preliminary investigation determined that Lowery fired “mutliple rounds” at Davis as he and the ride-along responded to the disturbance, with Lowery producing a handgun from his waistband and pointing it at Davis, who attempted to deflect the weapon and create distance between himself and Lowery.

Davis was struck and incapacitated by multiple rounds.

A statement released by KSP last year said that Lowery was found unresponsive when additional officers arrived, but it did not explain how he became unresponsive or whether the person on the ride-along was involved in the incident.

Esteban Lowery was pronounced dead at The Medical Center, and his mother’s statement Tuesday that he died from manual strangulation is the first public disclosure of a cause of death.

Davis was hospitalized for months, and was presented in November with a Silver Cross, given to officers wounded or killed in the line of duty, by BGPD Chief Michael Delaney at a Bowling Green Board of Commissioners meeting.