LOWELL — A Lowell man was charged and arraigned in Lowell District Court Tuesday morning following the Monday night fatal shooting of Nikhl Israni, 24, also of Lowell.

Bravindah Mawanda, 20, was arraigned Tuesday on charges of murder, carrying a firearm without a license, carrying a loaded firearm, use of a firearm while committing a felony, discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a building, and unlawful carrying of a large capacity firearm. A not guilty plea was entered on Mawanda’s behalf, and Judge William Travaun Bailey ordered him held without bail pending a Feb. 28 probable cause hearing.

According to the police report from the incident, officers responded to the area of Maude Street near Middlesex Street in the Lower Highlands after 7:30 p.m. Monday for what was initially reported as a motor vehicle crash, before being updated to a shooting. Responding officers arrived to find Israni on the ground being treated by medical personnel before he was transported by Pridestar Trinity EMS to Lowell General Hospital and subsequently pronounced dead at 8:09 p.m.

Police said Israni suffered seven gunshot wounds to his face, upper body and leg. At the scene was a Honda Civic, inside of which police said the shooting took place. One witness told police she saw the Honda backing slowly out of Maude Street before Israni opened the driver’s door and fell out of the car onto the roadway, while the car continued to roll before striking an unoccupied Jeep Wrangler. That witness told police they did not see anybody else in the Civic.

In the report, police said they reviewed footage from security cameras around the scene and observed a vehicle pull onto Maude Street from Middlesex Street at approximately 7:36 p.m., before eight consecutive gunshots could be heard along with a car horn and a witness shouting. A male with distinctive sneakers was also seen in other footage leaving and reentering a Community Teamwork Inc. residence in the area at the time of the shooting.

After police identified Mawanda as the person in the footage with the help of a CTI employee and took him in for questioning, the report states Mawanda admitted involvement in a shooting that night, claiming he acted in self-defense during a drug deal that had gone wrong, but offering contradictory accounts of how it happened.

The police said Mawanda admitted to firing eight shots at Israni before leaving the scene with the gun and returning to his apartment. Police also later determined Mawanda had returned to the scene of the shooting after hiding the gun in his room, and was recording a video with his cellphone when a responding officer directed him away from the area.

A spokesperson for CTI said in a phone call Tuesday afternoon they would decline to comment on an ongoing police investigation.

In a subsequent search of Mawanda’s Maude Street apartment, Massachusetts State Police troopers recovered a 9mm Ruger semiautomatic handgun and a 15-round magazine with six rounds remaining, along with similar-sized bags of white powder and a digital scale.

At the scene of the shooting Monday night, the festive glow of Christmas lights and holiday decorations in front of a multifamily home lit up Middlesex Street, casting a stark contrast to the dark reality nearby.

Police tape blocked off Middlesex Street between Maude Street and Walker Place. Officers could be seen with flashlights scouring a section of the approximately 200-foot stretch of roadway that composes Maude Street.

Residents in the neighborhood peered out their windows and stood on their porches, but none were willing to comment on the incident.

The investigation into the shooting is being led by the Lowell Police, the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, and State Police detectives assigned to the DA’s office. Christopher Tarrant and Jake McCrindle are the prosecutors assigned to the case.

Reporter Aaron Curtis contributed to this report.