UPDATE: Shooter commits suicide
Published 6:02 pm Monday, March 9, 2009
By By Adam Prestridge
The man believed to have pulled the trigger in a double homicide last Thursday at an Atmore apartment complex turned a 9mm on himself early this morning, according to Atmore Public Safety Director Glenn Carlee.
Carlee said 44-year-old Ferrell "Bishop" Ferna Perdue was in Bay Minette Monday morning with family members, who were speaking with authorities, when he committed suicide inside a vehicle in the Pine Grover Trailer Park around 9 a.m.
"We're still going to match up the crime scene information, but we're going to close the case," Carlee said.
At 10:20 a.m., Carlee and investigators with the Atmore Police Department were en route to Bay Minette to search for the long-barrel shotgun believed to been used in the shooting.
Perdue used a small bicycle to bust the window of a first-floor apartment in the "C" building at McRae Apartments, entered armed with a long-barrel shotgun and began shooting at will just after 10 p.m. last Thursday.
Marquetta Washington, 19, was declared dead at the scene. She was found in her bedroom with multiple gunshot wounds at close range. An autopsy Friday later revealed that she was pregnant, and investigators upped the crime to a double homicide.
For more on this story, visit www.atmoreadvance.com and Wednesday's Atmore Advance.