Man who shot it out downtown with Topeka police last year dies after jail suicide attempt
A man who faced a murder charge and had engaged in a downtown shootout last year with Topeka police died late Monday after attempting suicide at the Shawnee County Jail, an official said.
Eric Dwayne Perkins, 34, was pronounced deceased at 7:20 p.m. at Stormont Vail Health, said Tim Phelps, deputy director for the Shawnee County Department of Corrections, in a news release.
An autopsy to determine Perkins’ cause and manner of death was to be conducted Wednesday, Phelps said.
Phelps wasn't revealing further details other than to say that Perkins was found unresponsive and in "apparent medical distress from a suicide attempt" at 4:50 p.m. Saturday in his module at the jail.
Security and nursing staff carried out medical intervention efforts until emergency services personnel arrived about 4:57 p.m., and Perkins was taken away to Stormont Vail about 5:13 p.m. Saturday, Phelps said.
Kansas law requires any unexplained death while in custody of a jail to be investigated by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, he said.
The county corrections department will also conduct an internal administrative investigation, he said.
The jail last saw an inmate death by suicide in October 2020.
What was Perkins accused of?
The Shawnee County District Court case against Perkins was officially dismissed on Wednesday, said District Attorney Mike Kagay.
Perkins was bound over for trial June 5 on each of 13 charges he faced, including intentional and premeditated first-degree murder, linked to alleged crimes that included the shooting of two people, one fatally, about 9:30 a.m. Sept. 29 in the 3500 block of S.W. Kerry Avenue.
Gregory Dean Butts, 55, was pronounced deceased at the scene, Topeka police said.
The other gunshot victim was Perkins' then-girlfriend, 32-year-old Season Gardner. She suffered wounds that weren't considered life-threatening.
Testimony at his preliminary hearing indicated that after killing Butts, Perkins fired shots at a neighbor before abducting Gardner's friend, 39-year-old Kristi Mendez, and driving away in Mendez's car, with her beside him in the front seat.
Testimony showed Perkins then led law enforcement officers on a vehicle chase, which ended with Perkins' car being riddled with bullets after it struck a fire hydrant near S. 6th and Kansas Avenue, where authorities said he continued exchanging gunfire with responding officers.
Perkins, Mendez and a Topeka police officer, whose name hasn't been made public, were all wounded by gunfire.
Contact Tim Hrenchir at threnchir@gannett.com or 785-213-5934.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Man who was in shootout with Topeka police dies after suicide attempt
