Lowrance shooting trial enters third day

The trial of a man who has maintained he was threatened and acting in self defense when he shot a pistol June 10 in a residential Havre neighborhood entered its third day in state District Court in Havre today.

James R. Lowrance, born in 1990, was accused of shooting a pistol at the end of an argument on the 600 Block of 3rd Street after a person involved in the argument told him he didn’t believe it was a real, loaded gun. Lowrance was a bystander at the start of the argument.

His trial on a felony count of criminal endangerment and a misdemeanor count of discharging a firearm within city limits started Tuesday, and was expected to wrap up Wednesday.

Police involvement started when Lowrance called Havre police June 10 to report a man was not letting him leave a residence. The dispatcher heard him and another man yelling at each other, and another caller reported the fight and said he heard the other man saying, “quit waving that gun in my face,” court documents say.

While officers were en route, dispatch received another call reporting a shot had been fired at the location. When they arrived, they found Lowrance and saw he had a sidearm in a black holster on his right leg.

The officers were told that the argument started when a woman who lived in the neighborhood confronted a man about hitting his dog in his residence, directly above the woman’s residence.

The dog owner cursed at the woman, and a friend of hers told her boyfriend. The boyfriend confronted the man and told him to apologize.

While the dog-owner was apologizing and trying to work things out with the woman’s boyfriend, Lowrance made profane comments about the two women.

When the boyfriend confronted Lowrance, Lowrance unholstered a pistol and told the boyfriend he was going to shoot him. The dog owner pulled Lowrance’s arm down and told him to leave and escorted him out of the residence.

The boyfriend followed him out after Lowrance made more profane comments about the women. They began arguing near Lowrance’s vehicle, and Lowrance again unholstered his pistol and pointed it toward the boyfriend.

When the boyfriend commented that he didn’t believe it was a real, loaded gun, Lowrance said it was real and fired a round.

While Lowrance has maintained he was acting in self defense, telling the Havre Daily News he was threatened during the argument and was prevented from leaving, the boyfriend told officers he never did anything to stop Lowrance’s departure.