Police: Man accidentally killed girlfriend while ‘playing’ with revolver, then died by suicide

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTUU/Gray News) - A 21-year-old woman was killed after her 22-year-old boyfriend accidentally shot her last Wednesday while “playing” with his revolver before he died by suicide, according to authorities.

Family and friends are now working to honor the life of CloeRae McBrayer.

CloeRae McBrayer’s mother, Amanda Hooper, said her daughter was born and raised in Alabama, and described her as the “All-American Girl.”

“She’s the sunshine of the family,” Hooper said. “She’d love to be the center of attention. She’s bubbly. She wants you to talk to everybody. She would sing. She helped everybody.”

CloeRae McBrayer’s aunts and grandmother said she was “the sun”, always working to brighten other people’s days.

“She was a good kid,” Lesha McBrayer, CloeRae McBrayer’s grandmother, said.

According to the Fairbanks Police Department, officers responded to a Bentley Drive home after receiving a 911 call from a person who said that his friend, Lowrance, “accidentally” shot his girlfriend.

Police said Lowrance was playing with a revolver and pointed it at McBrayer before firing it, shooting her.

McBrayer was on the phone with another person when she was shot, Fairbanks Deputy Chief Richard Sweet said.

“I don’t know why Landon was playing with a gun because CloeRae was terrified of guns,” Hooper said.

Investigators believe there was a single round in the revolver’s chamber. It’s not known if Lowrance knew the gun was loaded, Sweet said.

“Cloe loved God first, always,” Amanda Windsor, Hooper’s friend, added. “She loved her family and she loved her friends and she brought joy to everyone, everywhere.”

According to Hooper, her daughter met Landon Lowrance through a mutual friend and the two began dating.

“She went up [to Fairbanks] for the weekend one time and then she come back, she was like, ‘Mama, he’s a really good guy,’” Hooper said. “I talked to his mom. She seems like a really good family, and they were talking about getting engaged this weekend and then all this.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story contains discussion about suicide. If you or someone you know is in crisis, help is available by calling 988.

Investigators said after calling 911, the witness tried to physically prevent Lowrance from taking another gun and shooting himself, but was not able to stop him.

“We were planning their wedding,” CloeRae McBrayer’s older sister Lori Hunt said. “She was free-spirited. You couldn’t tell her no.”

“She always told you the truth, even if you didn’t like it,” Marley Walker, CloeRae McBrayer’s lifelong friend, said. “She was so beautiful inside and out, and she was just truly one of the most amazing and closest friends I’ve ever had in my entire life.”

Hooper said CloeRae McBrayer had recently been accepted to the University of Alaska Fairbanks to pursue a degree in teaching. Before that, her daughter also had a passion for cosmetology and design.

“Ever since she was little, little enough to get a pair of scissors that we have to hide from her, she’d cut up clothes, sew them together, make her own clothes,” Hooper said.

“She was good at tattoos,” Nickie McBrayer, CloeRae McBrayer’s aunt, said. “I let her put one on me because she wanted to, and that’s just like everybody said. She got what she wanted.”

Following CloeRae McBrayer’s death, friends of the family started an online fundraiser to help transport her body back to Alabama for her funeral.

As of Friday, more than $22,000 has been raised.

“I feel blessed,” Hooper said. “We’re a small community and everybody knows everybody, and something like this tragedy happens and everybody pulls together.”

Hooper also expressed gratitude to staff members at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, who offered to cover Hooper’s expenses in the event she needed to travel to Alaska to identify her daughter’s body.

“I appreciate that more than you’ll ever know,” Hooper said.

As police continue to investigate the events that led up to CloeRae McBrayer’s death, Hooper extended empathy to Lowrance’s family.

“I’m not mad at his parents. It was out of their control. There was nothing that they could do about it,” she said. “I’m hurt because I don’t know exactly what happened. I know my daughter loved Landon and I know Landon loved Cloe.”

CloeRae McBrayer’s family and friends also thanked the Fairbanks Police Department for their help and responsiveness during this time.

“Consider all firearms loaded all the time, even if you unload it,” Sweet said. “If you take a magazine out or if you take the rounds out, take them out of a rifle or a shotgun or a pistol, you always consider that that pistol is loaded. So, act appropriately with that.”