'Reckless' handling of gun led to death

Luke R. Malcolm did not intend to shoot Brady Lowery in the head with his handgun, he told police. It just happened. It was an accident.

Regardless, Jackson County prosecutors charged Malcolm with “recklessly” causing the death of Lowery. The 23-year-old was charged with first-degree involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action.

Lowery, 23, was pronounced dead at an area hospital Jan. 22.

When Oak Grove police arrived, they saw Malcolm on his knees. He was crying over the lifeless body of Lowery.

“It was an accident,” Lowery told the officer, according to court records. “I was putting my gun away. I did not mean to shoot him.”

The prosecutor’s office Friday shared details of the shooting that happened at a home on the 1300 block of Southeast Austin in Oak Grove.

The probable cause statement provided the following accounts from four witnesses and Malcolm himself.

(Names of the witnesses will not be named because they have not been charged.)

Witness No. 1
She told Oak Grove investigators that Malcolm stuffed the handgun under the mattress in a bedroom. Malcolm was getting ready to go. He grabbed the gun from under the mattress. Malcolm whipped the gun around his body to put it in the back of his pants. What followed was gunfire. She saw Lowery fall down. Malcolm screamed for someone to call 911. He then bent down to check Lowery’s pulse. Police arrived quickly after the shooting.

Witness No. 2
She said Malcolm grabbed the gun and was “in motion” to place it in the back of his pants when the gun discharged. She saw Lowery collapse. Malcolm fell to his knees beside him to check on him. She and Malcolm could not find a pulse.

Witness No. 3
He told police that Lowery called earlier that day, asking if he could come over to his house and hang out. He said that was OK. His other friends arrived. The six were all talking in his bedroom for approximately 30 minutes.

Malcolm went to open the bedroom door. But he had problems opening it. Lowery made fun of him for having problems with the door. In a joking manner, Malcolm put his finger to Lowery’s head. The witness said Lowery told Malcolm to “do it.”

Malcolm then grabbed the handgun from under the mattress. The witness became nervous. Lowery repeated the words “do it” again. That’s when the witness heard the gun shot. He thought Lowery was joking when he fell to the floor.

The witness said Malcolm and Lowery were good friends.

Witness No. 4
She said when some of the group got up to leave, Malcolm “grabbed his gun and pointed it” at Lowery, who told Malcolm to “do it.” Malcolm and Lowery were laughing about it and were not serious. The gun discharged.

Malcolm’s account
Police questioned Malcolm twice, once after the shooting and then again on Tuesday.

Malcolm told them that he went to the friend’s house to hang out and smoke marijuana. He drank two beers earlier that night. Malcolm and the others shared a marijuana cigarette.
No one was arguing at the time of the shooting. Everyone was on good terms, he told police.

He placed the gun under the mattress because there were children in the house. When he left, he retrieved the gun and attempted to put it in the back of his pants. That’s where he usually carries it. The gun went off as he was moving it from the mattress to the back of his pants.

Malcolm said he normally keeps the gun unloaded and in his vehicle. He did not know it was loaded and the safety was off when he removed it from the bed.

When asked if the gun had been pointed at Lowery when it went off, Malcolm said it was pointed “in his general direction.” The gun went off by accident when he pulled it from the mattress.
The gun, a black and chrome Taurus .40-caliber, was purchased at Bass Pro Shops in Independence.

Police recovered a magazine containing .40-caliber bullets. They recovered the bullet that struck Lowery, a .40-caliber Federal bullet casing.

A nonwitness, a friend of Malcolm and Lowery, told police Malcolm had been careless with the gun around his friends in the past.

“Malcolm would at times take the gun out of his waistband from behind his back and show it off and point it at people,” the friend said, according to the probable cause statement. He even pointed the gun at the friend.