Sap Kray, the man convicted in the 1997 killing of Tacoma Police Officer William Lowry, died on June 5 while serving a life sentence at the Monroe Correctional Complex. He was 74 and had long been paralyzed from the waist down after being shot in the confrontation that killed Lowry. Authorities list his cause of death as pending.
According to the Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Decedent List, Kray died at the Monroe Correctional Complex and remains listed with cause of death pending while officials complete their review. The News Tribune reported that Kray had been serving a life sentence there for Lowry’s murder.
How the 1997 shooting unfolded
Court records filed in federal proceedings recount that on Aug. 28, 1997, Kray opened fire when a Tacoma SWAT team moved to arrest him on suspicion of assaulting his estranged wife, killing Officer William Lowry, according to federal court records on Justia. Those filings describe a multi-hour standoff during which Lowry was shot and Kray was wounded and later left paralyzed from the waist down.
Sentence and appeals
Kray was convicted of first-degree aggravated murder in 1999 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after prosecutors declined to seek the death penalty, The News Tribune reports. His appeals and later federal habeas petitions were denied, according to court records.
Officer Lowry remembered
The Tacoma Police Department lists Officer William Lowry on its Roll Call of Honor and notes he was killed in the line of duty in 1997, leaving behind a wife and a young daughter, according to the department’s memorial page on the Tacoma Police Department website. Lowry’s death remains part of the department’s official remembrance for officers killed on duty.
The Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Decedent List remains the public record of Kray’s death while the office completes its review, and officials have not yet released final cause-of-death findings. This story will be updated if the medical examiner posts a determination or if state officials provide additional information.
