Man draws prison for attempted murder

A man who gunned down another man on a busy Norristown street in 2017 is headed to state prison.

R. Carpenter, who accepted a plea agreement in the matter.

The victim, a man with whom Lowery reportedly had a dispute, was shot as he was riding his BMX bicycle in the area. The victim suffered four bullet wounds to his chest, armpit and left hip but survived the attack with the help of Good Samaritans who found him and drove him to a local hospital, according to court documents.

“He gunned someone down in broad daylight and even as (the victim) was running away he chased after him and continued to shoot at him. He was just literally riding his bike down the street when this happened. Fortunately, the victim survived,” said Assistant District Attorney Benjamin McKenna, who sought a lengthy prison term against Lowery. “If you’re going to try to kill someone, you need to go to state prison.”

The shooting was captured by video surveillance cameras in the area, a business district.

“It was incredibly dangerous. There were people walking around, there were kids out there,” McKenna alleged.

An investigation began when borough police were dispatched to the area of West Marshall and Kohn streets for a reported shooting and near that location police saw a BMX bicycle on the sidewalk and found multiple shell casings and two spent projectiles in close proximity to the bike, according to the criminal complaint filed by Norristown Detective Charles Leeds.

Officers learned that the shooting victim was being transported by others to a local hospital for treatment.

Video surveillance footage showed the victim riding his bicycle on the north sidewalk in the 500 block of West Marshall Street. Lowery, according to video surveillance, shot at the victim as the victim passed by. The victim fell from the bike and then ran south across the street with Lowery chasing him, police alleged. Lowery fired an ad-

ditional shot at the victim before getting into the passenger side of a silver Chrysler vehicle and fleeing from

the scene, according to court papers.

Investigators identified the driver of the Chrysler as Robert Joseph “Ace” Scott.

Lowery and Scott were apprehended by Norristown police and members of the U.S. Marshals Service inside

a residence in the 700 block of Swede Street on Sept. 19, 2017. Scott was found hiding in the bathroom and Lowery was found hiding in a closet in the bedroom at the residence, according to court documents.

Detectives said they recovered

a black semiautomatic Carl Walther 9mm handgun, hidden in the tank of a toilet of the bathroom where Scott was found hiding, as well as two bundles of heroin inside the pocket of a shirt in the closet in which Lowery was hiding.

Scott, 25, of Darby, Delaware County, previously was sentenced to one to five years in state prison after he pleaded guilty to charges of hindering apprehension and persons not to possess a firearm in connection with the incident. With the charges,

prosecutors alleged Scott provided aid to Lowery during the shooting incident.

In exchange for Lowery’s guilty plea to the most serious attempted murder charge, prosecutors dismissed weapons and drug charges against Lowery.