An Alaska man shot his girlfriend dead while “playing” with a revolver, then grabbed another gun and killed himself while a friend begged 911 for help, police said.
CloeRae McBrayer, 21, died last Wednesday at the hands of Landon Lowrance, 22, in Fairbanks. Officers found her already gone and Lowrance clinging to life when they reached the scene. He later died at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital.
Lowrance “shot McBrayer with a revolver while playing with the gun and pointing it at her,” the Fairbanks Police Department said in a release. A friend of Lowrance’s was present and immediately called 911, staying on the line as dispatchers tried to coordinate a response. “A disturbance could be heard in the background during the call,” police said.
The unidentified friend “attempted to physically intervene when Lowrance obtained another firearm and shot himself,” the department said. Detectives later interviewed the caller and determined they “are not believed to have been involved in the shootings,” police added. Authorities did not specify whose residence hosted the double fatality.
McBrayer had recently been accepted to the University of Alaska Fairbanks and was pursuing a career in teaching, according to her mother, Amanda Hooper. The young woman from Alabama had met Lowrance through a mutual friend and the couple had been discussing marriage.
“She’s the sunshine of the family. She’d love to be the center of attention. She’s bubbly, she wants you to talk to everybody. She would sing, she helped everybody,” Hooper told Alaska’s News Source.
McBrayer’s older sister, Lori Hunt, told the same outlet the family had already begun making plans for the couple’s future. “We were planning their wedding,” Hunt said.
Hooper said she had spoken with Lowrance’s mother and felt reassured about the match. “I talked to his mom, she seems like a really good family, and they were talking about getting engaged this weekend and then all this.”
The department labeled the deaths a “tragic and preventable loss of life” and issued a direct plea to gun owners. “This incident is a tragic and preventable loss of life,” the department said while urging “everyone to practice firearm safety at all times.”
“Firearms should always be handled responsibly and safely, and individuals should never participate in games or activities involving firearms that place anyone at risk of injury or death.”
McBrayer was born and raised in Alabama, her mother said, and had made the journey north for school and for love. The engagement that had been planned for the coming weekend will now never happen.
Police have not disclosed whether alcohol or drugs contributed to Lowrance’s decision to point the loaded revolver at his girlfriend, nor have they detailed how a second weapon came within his reach while the 911 call was still active.
The Fairbanks Police Department continues to investigate the circumstances surrounding the shootings.