Sailor shot dead after fistfight and Deputy U.S. marshal charged with murder

By Christopher Munsey
NavyTimes staff writer
15 November 2004 Issue

In the last conscious minutes of his life, Seaman Recruit Ryan T. Stowers, 20, didn’t stand a fighting chance. The young sailor was already shot once in the leg, and the motorist he had just beaten down in a fistfight at a Rockville, Md., shopping plaza was standing outside the driver’s side door of Stowers’ Camaro, brandishing a badge and a pistol and yelling at him to get out of the car. Stowers frantically dialed 911 on his cell phone as he desperately tried to drive away. That’s when the man, an off-duty deputy U.S. marshal dressed in street clothes, allegedly fired three rounds from his semi-automatic into the back window of Stowers’ car. The bullets shattered the glass, and one bullet struck Stowers in the back, killing him. With Stowers slumped over the wheel, the Camaro jumped a curb and plowed into a storefront. Paramedics took him to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after arriving. Arthur L. Lloyd, the man police say shot Stowers Oct. 28, now faces first-degree murder charges. Now, the sailor’s family is left wondering why a promising life ended so abruptly, and so violently. “If he would have died overseas, it would have been for a purpose. This is just senseless,” said his older sister, Tristan Stowers.

Fistfight led to slaying
According to an affidavit filed by the Montgomery County police, the road-rage-turned-slaying started as a traffic dispute sometime before 8:30 p.m. along Rockville Pike, a busy six-lane artery north of Washington, D.C. Both men pulled into the Mid-Pike Plaza, which was crowded with shoppers, the affidavit stated. Stowers’ Camaro was parked just behind Lloyd’s Ford Expedition. At some point, their dispute turned into a fistfight, with Lloyd receiving the worst of the blows exchanged, including a broken thumb and a black eye. Lloyd then pulled out his handgun, prompting his wife, who had been sitting in their auto with the couple’s young children, to get out and try to restrain him. Lloyd was undaunted, telling his wife, “I’m going to show him,” the affidavit stated. Lloyd confronted Stowers, and Lloyd’s gun discharged, hitting the sailor in the lower right leg. A lawyer for Lloyd said at a bond review hearing Nov. 5 that Lloyd shot to disable Stowers. Stowers screamed “you just shot me” and called 911 on his cell phone. He then got back into his car. Only then did Lloyd, who had ordered Stowers to get out of the car and not leave the scene, pull out his badge and identify himself as a U.S. marshal, according to the affidavit. Witnesses told police that Stowers was yelling, “Show me your ID, show me your photo ID” and, “I don’t believe you; show me an ID, something with a picture.”Lloyd reportedly was yelling, “Get out of the car, or I’m going to shoot. If you leave, watch what’s going to happen to you in the morning, you just hit a federal officer!” As Stowers pulled away, Lloyd fired three shots at his car. The confrontation was witnessed by at least 40 people, many of whom were interviewed by police in the following days.

Cindy Nachman-Senders of Potomac, Md., was coming out of a fabric store with her 5-year-old son when she heard a loud, intense argument between the two men.At one point, Stowers was in his car talking on a cell phone, and the deputy was yelling “give me the phone” at him, Nachman-Senders told Navy Times. She saw Stowers back up his car, and try to maneuver around the marshal’s SUV. “The next thing I know, I heard the ‘pops,’ and the officer is standing there with his gun by his side and this dazed look on his face, almost in shock,” Nachman-Senders said. She couldn’t understand why Stowers was shot, much less why shots were fired in such a congested place. “I can’t believe this guy opened fire in a crowded shopping center,” she said.

Navy gave him a purpose
Stowers, from Redding, Calif., joined the Navy earlier this year to make something of his life, family members said. By all accounts, he was well on his way. His father, Todd Stowers, remembers thinking about how much his son had changed when he attended Ryan’s graduation from boot camp at Great Lakes, Ill., back in April.

A kid who had knocked around after high school, worked at a video store and hung out with friends found purpose in the Navy, Todd Stowers said. “He had already grown up so much that you wouldn’t believe, from a kid to a young man,” he said.

Ryan Stowers graduated from high school in 2002. The middle child of Todd and Tricia Stowers, he was an athlete who liked basketball and girls. He attended a local community college last year, but quit after a semester, his sister Tristan said. Stowers joined the Navy in March. After boot camp, he reported to the fast combat support ship Detroit at Naval Weapons Station Earle, N.J., in June.

At the time, the ship was participating in Summer Pulse ’04, and his family said Stowers wasn’t sent out to join the ship. Playing basketball while off duty back at Earle, Stowers injured his left knee. He was placed on light duty, while waiting for surgery at a local hospital. Then, the Navy sent Stowers to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., for the procedure, his father said. Stowers worked in the hospital’s library while waiting for his surgery, said Lt. Cmdr. Chito Peppler, a hospital spokesman. “He was a good worker, and he had a good attitude,” Peppler said. Stowers underwent surgery in late September, and was given 30 days’ leave to visit his family in California. His family took him to the airport for his flight back to Maryland the night of Oct. 27, the day before the fatal confrontation.

Officer charged with murder
Arthur Lloyd was arrested and charged with murder Nov. 2 at his Rockville home, five days after the killing. He also faces a charge of reckless endangerment and use of a handgun in the commission of a crime of violence. A person who answered the telephone at Lloyd’s Rockville residence Nov. 4 said the family was not home, and hung up. At the bond review hearing Nov. 5, Stefanie Roemer, one of three private attorneys who appeared for Lloyd, said Lloyd was trying to arrest Stowers, and that he was worried about the safety of his wife, Wanda, and five young children. “He had no intention of killing anyone. Mr. Lloyd exercised restraint in the face of a dangerous situation,” she said. About 20 family members, friends and fellow officers came to the courtroom in a show of support for Lloyd. Deputy State’s Attorney John McCarthy argued against setting bond, citing instances of family violence and professional misbehavior. “It’s a miracle no one else was hurt. ... This was a man out of control,” he said. District Court Judge Brian Kim declined to set bond. Lloyd was charged because the investigation determined that he did not shoot in self-defense, and was acting as a private citizen in the confrontation, not a law enforcement officer, said Montgomery County State’s Attorney Douglas F. Gansler.“He shot the kid in the back,” Gansler said.
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Contributed,
YNCS Don Harribine, USN(ret)