Authorities: Robeson County man murdered breaking up domestic dispute
LUMBERTON, N.C. (WTVD) -- Investigators are searching for a Philadelphia man in connection with the murder of a Robeson County construction worker.
Aaron Coty Lowry, 30, was shot and killed outside a hookah lounge in Williamsport, Pennsylvania early Sunday morning. Lowry, who went by Coty, was a sub-contractor for a Robeson County-based company that was on a YMCA build in Williamsport.
According to Williamsport authorities, Rashwan Williams, 32, went to the lounge, accusing his girlfriend of flirting with the group of North Carolina workers. According to Assistant Chief Timothy Miller, when the couple came out of the lounge, Lowry tried to intervene in what appeared to be a domestic assault, and that's when Williams shot Lowry in the chest at close range.
"He reacted out of not knowing how to react, and he paid with his life," said Ellen Lowry, Coty's paternal aunt.
Lowry said the family got the call from authorities Sunday morning. She said her nephew had just left for work late last week. Saddened, Lowry recalled the words to a song that played in her front yard 25 years ago, when she took care of her nieces and nephews, including Lowry.
"'I'd walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 more just to be you ...do, do, do, do,'" she sang in tears. "We'd all sing that in the yard dancing in the mud getting dirtier, and that's one of my fondest memories...'I'd walk 500 miles for you.' I'd walk 500 miles for him. Give him all that I have."
Paula Hunt, another of Lowry's aunts, said he'd planned on marrying Cekina Locklear, his longtime girlfriend and mother of his two young daughters, as soon as he returned from this particular trip.
The family said Wednesday they can find peace in knowing Lowry was attempting to help the woman, and his aunt had a forgiving but firm message for Williams.
"The only way for him to help me is to find his spiritual side to find God." said Ellen Lowry. "That's my prayer for him."
Miller said investigators believe Williams is out of Pennsylvania, and the search for him continued Wednesday.
