Good Guy with a Gun #79: Indianapolis, IN
Original incident: January 4, 2024. It takes women an average of seven attempts to leave a domestic abuser. In this case, it would have been better for the abuser to leave her alone.
These posts are based on our Good Guy with a Gun calendar. If you bought or received a calendar, contact me for a complementary subscription. Today’s post is somewhat updated from the calendar version.
It’s often extremely difficult for an abused person to leave her abuser.
Even after years of torment, five no-contact orders since 2020, and an order of protection, a woman had reunited (again) with her boyfriend, 32-year-old Derrick Curtis Perry II.
Perry had previous run-ins with the law related to intimidation and violence: You can check some of them out in the Sources section if you’re interested.
At any rate, there came a day when Perry tried to strangle her. She pushed him away, but he strengthened his efforts. She fell back, and he lunged for her, but she shot and killed him. Police found him in a common area of the apartment complex. He died at the scene.
(If you’d like to hear from the woman, she was interviewed by WTHR just a few days after the shooting. She sounds lost, not knowing what she’ll do without the man who abused her.)
According to Women Against Abuse, a domestic violence nonprofit, it takes an average of seven attempts for a survivor to leave an abuser for good.
Perry isn’t coming back.
Special GGWAG bonus story!
There’s another man named Derrick Perry since the creation of the Good Guy with a Gun calendar: The hero who confronted a violent man wielding a knife at a Michigan Walmart. Grand Traverse County Sheriff Michael Shea said, regarding Perry and others who stepped up to stop the man, “I commend them. It’s not very often that we have citizens that are willing to step up and take action.”
You can listen to that Derrick Perry speak on Good Morning America, as a part of this article or below on YouTube. It’s a heartening few minutes.
Sources
Fox59 did the best single story on this incident. Watch the video: It’s relatively long for a local news spot (1:51), tells us that police had a previous response to that address because of Perry, details his protection orders, describes the incident as “domestic,” interviews the police, connects this homicide to the dramatic increase in homicides in the area, and interviews a professor about what all of this means.
WTHR spent some good energy covering this story, the most important part being the the interview with the domestic abuse survivor noted above. They also produced an initial story and a follow-up when Perry was identified. All of these involved airtime. In particular, given the nature of the victim, understanding her perspective is really important for other women who might be trapped in abusive relationships.
WISH 8 did an initial article that they updated with Perry’s name the next day.
WRTV gave some terse coverage.
The Indy Star, honestly, dropped the ball on this.
They mention Perry’s death in a round-up of January 2024 Indianapolis killings and even mention that the woman and Perry knew each other, but never mentions the domestic abuse or the fact that she was never charged.
But then it gets worse: At the end of 2024, they published a story about unsolved 2024 cases — and Perry is in it. They don’t note the domestic abuse connection or call into question the fact that the police didn’t clear the case (if they did indeed get their information from the police).
Finally, if you’re interested in documentation of Perry’s criminal history, you can get some source records here in the following places:
DailyJournal.net provides “police incidents” with Perry’s name mentioned on June 10 and July 8, 2022, both times for arrests for invasion of privacy.
Times Union provides “public occurrences” with arrests shown for Perry on May 19, 2022 for intimidation with a $10,250 bond and on August 6, 2022 for bond revocation.
Ink Free News provided an article about the reason for Perry’s arrest on May 19: He had traveled to Warsaw, about two hours north of Indianapolis, on November 21, 2021, and met with a woman there.
Was it the same one as in this story? It seems likely enough.
The Ink Free News article says, “She also told the officer that Perry was facing a felony charge for stealing another gun of hers in Marion County. A no-contact order was issued by Marion Superior Court 19 in July 2021 for a case in which Perry was charged with invasion of privacy. The order prohibits Perry from having contact with the woman.”
At any rate, from that incident, Perry was charged with intimidation with a deadly weapon, a level 5 felony; pointing a firearm and theft, both level 6 felonies; and invasion of privacy, a class A misdemeanor.