In the autumn of 2017, the life of 31-year-old Brian Anthony Lowe Jr., a male resident of Fort Wayne, Indiana, was tragically cut short. On the morning of October 25, 2017, Lowe was a passenger in a friend's car on Lake Avenue when a man approached the vehicle and shot him in the head. The driver of the car, in a state of panic, sped away from the scene before calling for help. Emergency services arrived to find Lowe in critical condition.
He was transported to a local hospital where he was placed on a ventilator. Despite the efforts of medical staff, Brian Lowe Jr. succumbed to his injuries two days later on October 27, 2017.
The investigation into the shooting quickly identified a person of interest. Later on the same day as the shooting, Deedee Walker Barnett, then 38, turned himself into the Fort Wayne Police Department. During questioning, Barnett confessed to shooting Lowe. The reason he gave for his violent act was that he believed Lowe 'caused chaos in the neighborhood and yelled at people.' Initially, Barnett was charged with aggravated battery. However, following Lowe's death, the charges were upgraded.
On October 27, 2017, the same day that Brian Lowe Jr. passed away, the state formally charged Deedee Walker Barnett with murder. The legal proceedings that followed culminated on August 29, 2018, when Barnett entered into a plea agreement. In exchange for having a firearm enhancement dropped, he pleaded guilty to the charge of murder. Just under a month later, on September 28, 2018, a judge sentenced Barnett to 63 years in prison for his crime. An appeal of the sentence was later filed by Barnett, but the original 63-year sentence was ultimately upheld by the court.
