Cops find weed in slain man’s pocket; he got out of prison in May

A woman at the Macon apartment where a man was shot to death Sunday afternoon told police that before he was fatally wounded, she heard him tell his apparent killer, “I told you not to come over here. I was coming to you.”

Moments after the 4:30 p.m. shooting, Bibb County sheriff’s deputy Tony Moss arrived at the English Village Apartment where the killing happened.

A woman was screaming. The place reeked of marijuana.

The apartments, which sit at the edge of the Vineville Academy schoolyard, are a block south of the intersection of Vineville and Rogers avenues.

Ralfeale Carnell Lowe, 35, who’d been shot twice in his chest, was bleeding, lying “in the arms of another male, (slouched) back on his knees” inside Apartment H at the English Avenue complex, according to Moss’ incident report.

“I then observed a clear plastic baggie of green leafy substance hanging out of the victim’s pocket,” the report added.

A black pistol was found on a bedroom floor upstairs, but it wasn’t clear from the report whether it was the gun used to shoot Lowe.

Lowe, whose first name has numerous spellings in the Georgia Department of Corrections database, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2007 for selling cocaine in Pulaski County.

He was released from prison in 2010, but was sent back last September for reasons that were not immediately clear. He got out May 9 and apparently moved to Macon.

Lowe was said to live at the apartment where he was shot.

Investigators on Monday were still searching for his killer or killers. A scenario of what may have led to his shooting was not yet known.

Even so, details from Moss’ write-up show that the scene bore telltale signs of a drug deal — or at least the presence of pot.

“I observed (a) green leafy substance scattered throughout the ground in front (of the) apartment,” Moss’ report noted.

A pair of bullet shell casings were found about 45 feet from the front door, where there was blood on the steps.

Quintesa Whitmore, 24, the woman inside the apartment who heard Lowe talking before the shooting, told the deputy that she saw Lowe with two young men.

After the shooting, “she was very distraught and gave a vague description” of the suspects, the report added. “She said they were ... around 17 or 18 years old.”

Lowe’s mother, Anita Lowe, was also said to be in the apartment.

She said she heard two gunshots and then saw her son lying back on his knees. She reported seeing three men running away.

This story was originally published September 12, 2016 at 5:03 PM with the headline "Cops find weed in slain man’s pocket; he got out of prison in May."