Homeless man charged with shooting at Marathon County deputy still waiting for attorney
WAUSAU − A homeless man charged with trying to kill a Marathon County Sheriff's deputy on Nov. 20 remains in jail on $1 million bail while he waits for an attorney.
Tyler R. Perkins, 35, faces charges of attempted first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree recklessly endangering safety, possessing a firearm as a convicted felon, second-degree recklessly endangering safety and fleeing an officer. Perkins had been scheduled for a preliminary hearing Wednesday morning, but the Wisconsin Public Defender's Office had not yet found him an attorney. A conference with a judicial assistant has been scheduled for Jan. 23.
According to the criminal complaint, on Nov. 20, a Marathon County deputy saw a vehicle that had a license plate that didn't match the vehicle. The plate associated with the vehicle showed the owner had a revoked driver's license, according to the complaint.
The vehicle pulled into the Best Buy parking lot, 226480, Rib Mountain Drive, and took a parking spot near the front of the lot. The deputy turned on his emergency lights and followed the vehicle, according to the complaint. The deputy saw the driver raise his hand in a way that expressed frustration.
The vehicle drove out of the parking lot and back onto Rib Mountain Drive, the driver ignoring the deputy's signals to stop, according to the complaint. As the deputy pursued the vehicle near Mallard Lane in the village of Rib Mountain, the deputy heard glass from one of the suspect's windows break and glass hit the deputy's squad car. The deputy thought the driver had fired at him and checked himself for an injury and his windshield for damage, according to the complaint. He found neither.
The deputy chased the vehicle through Wausau, with the vehicle's speed at times reaching 70 mph. The fleeing driver went through red traffic lights, didn't stop for stop signs and went the wrong way down streets and through roundabouts, according to the complaint. The deputy lost the vehicle on an area with narrow streets.
The deputy looked at video of the chase and saw the driver fired a handgun at him. An officer was able to identify the owner of the vehicle, who said he hadn't been driving it and had sold it to a woman he met through a friend, according to the complaint. The man said Perkins had been driving the car for a couple weeks, but another man had called the owner to pick up the car on Nov. 27. The owner said the moon roof and rear passenger window on the car had been broken.
The woman who bought the car said she had cleaned it out after she got it and found a bullet and spent casing inside. She had kept the bullet, but she said she had thrown out the casing. Officers found the casing she had thrown out.
The woman said she had bought the car, but then she lost her license, so she sold the car to Perkins, according to the complaint. She said she had seen Perkins with a pistol that he carried in his waistband.
On Dec. 14, Perkins was at a Wisconsin Rapids address when he saw police arrive. Perkins ran inside the home, which angered the owner because the owner's children were inside, according to the complaint.
Police used a public address system to order Perkins out of the house, but he would respond by yelling out a side window, according to the complaint. Perkins stayed in the house for three hours before surrendering.
Perkins later talked to his father on a jailhouse phone and told his father he didn't want to walk out to be arrested but instead wanted to "go out in a blaze of glory," according to the complaint.
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Contact Karen Madden at 715-345-2245 or kmadden@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @KMadden715, Instagram @kmadden715 or Facebook at www.facebook.com/karen.madden.33.
This article originally appeared on Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune: Man charged with shooting at Marathon County deputy waits for attorney
