NC man was sexually abusing 2 girls in a Charlotte park. Then a homeless hero stepped in.
In 2017, prosecutors say, Ivan Dawkins was sexually abusing two young girls in the falling light and leafy cover of Independence Park when a voice called out across the playground.
It came from a good Samaritan. A homeless one.
“I saw you with my own eyes,” Tremaine Lowery shouted as he shared an account of the assaults on his cellphone with a 911 operator and began following Dawkins and his victims on foot.
One of the girls was 7; the other, 9.
The pursuit went on for blocks. According to his 911 call, Lowery never let the children or their attacker out of his sight until Charlotte-Mecklenburg police arrived.
Then, according to the Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s Office, Lowery all but disappeared.
Four years later, during a 10-day trial, the former 9-year-old bravely took the witness stand and testified against Dawkins. So did another victim, now an adult, who described how Dawkins also had molested her when she was little.
On Wednesday, the jury deliberated less than an hour before convicting the 47-year-old Charlotte man of statutory sex offense and seven counts of indecent liberties with a child.
On Thursday, Superior Court Judge Hugh Lewis sentenced Dawkins to at least 25 years in prison. Upon his release, Dawkins must register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
Lowery was nowhere to be seen in the courtroom. Prosecutors wanted the 40-year-old to testify about what he had witnessed in the park in 2017, but deputies could never find him.
That doesn’t mean his voice was not heard.
On the phone with 911
In the recording of his 911 call, which was played at trial, Lowery described in rich detail and in a sometimes breathless voice how he was living at an Elizabeth-area church and had just come across a man he recognized as a worker from a nearby McDonald’s with two little girls in the Independence Park playground.
Both girls wore pink dresses and had their hair in braids, Lowery told the operator. While the man sexually assaulted one of the children, the other played on the swings.
When the abuser fled with the children, Lowery followed, taking the 911 operator with him. Block by block, he gave her a GPS-quality description of locations and landmarks as the man and the girls moved through Midtown with him close behind.
The operator asked Lowery if he was keeping a safe distance. But he remained in hearing range of the man, whom, according to Lowery, was still wearing his McDonald’s shirt from work.
“I saw you, sir, with my own eyes,” Lowery called out politely but firmly at one point. “I’m on the phone with the police.”
Eventually a CMPD cruiser arrived. Lowery began shouting. “Here! Hey! Hey! Hey! Cop! Cop! Cop! Here! Here! Here! Here!”
Moments later the call ends.
Mother: Lowery on the streets for years
On Thursday, Lowery could not be reached for comment at the phone number he gave to the 911 operator. A statement from the District Attorney’s Office praised his help in both Dawkins’ conviction and in preventing additional abuse.
Lowery’s mother says she’s surprised he got involved.
“He’s pretty much an independent person, likes to stick by himself,” Willette Lowery told the Observer on Thursday. “... He always tries not to get into anybody else’s business.”
She said she only heard about her son’s 2017 heroics from a family friend — “how the guy tried to get away and (Tremaine) chased him down til the police came. He never talked to me about it or anything,” she said.
According to the mother, Tremaine Lowery has been living on the streets for more than a decade, that these days she “barely hears from him,” and that he last called her two weeks ago when she was hospitalized with some heart problems.
“We just talked. He was telling me to get my (COVID-19) vaccination, and that he loved me, but he was more concerned with me getting my shots than anything else.” (Side note: Willette Lowery says she got her first dose this week.)
She said it’s hard to predict the next move of her homeless child. Maybe he’ll call her in 10 days on her birthday. Maybe he won’t.
Tremaine Lowery is not perfect. He’s had several run-ins with the law. But in October 2017, he set aside his private ways and stood up for two little girls.
“Yes, he did. He’s got nieces now, young nieces,” his mother said. “I love him. I’m glad he did this, but that’s about all I can tell you.”
“If we talk on my birthday, I’ll tell him you called.”
Staff writer Gavin Off contributed.
This story was originally published July 30, 2021 at 11:30 AM.
