Bank Robbery Remains Baffling

Bowie Man's Friends and Family Saw Nothing to Predict Fatal Act

Five days a week, Fred Perkins left his $725,000 house in Bowie, drove to work at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and returned home to his wife of more than three decades.

On Saturday morning, police said, the 54-year-old building engineer headed for a nearby bank, armed with a gun. He robbed the bank and then fled in the manager's Toyota Sequoia. Officers pursued him and, when he raised the gun, opened fire, police said. Perkins was fatally wounded.

Yesterday, bewildered and grieving, his wife, adult children and friends struggled to understand why a man who had no criminal record and who ran a neighborhood watch program would act as he apparently did.

"We want to say it was something as simple as he was going through financial stress, or someone in the family was sick, but it wasn't any of that," said Perkins's son, Marcus, 33. "He was a great man who had something that maybe he wasn't telling us."

Authorities in Prince George's County continue to investigate the shooting, which police have said followed a 20-minute pursuit. The county police department has identified four officers who fired. Officers from the Bowie police department also joined the chase, and three of them fired as well.

Marcus Perkins, a program analyst at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said he is not challenging the police account but questions whether such force was necessary.

"In order for me to get through any of this, I have to forgive my father for what he may have done and forgive the police for what they may have done," he said.

Like others gathered yesterday at the house in Bowie, Perkins spoke admiringly of his father. "He was the standard by which I measure myself and every other man that I have ever met," Perkins said.

Also at the house was James McCain, a neighbor who said he and Fred Perkins became close friends after Perkins and his wife, Gail, moved to Bowie in 2005. McCain said that he and Perkins went to Washington Redskins games together and planned to travel to Canton, Ohio, for the induction of Darrell Green and Art Monk into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. They finalized those plans Friday night, he said.

Perkins was enthusiastic and seemed himself, McCain said. There was "no indication" of anything wrong, he said.

Fred Perkins met his future wife in school, and the two were dating by the time he was 14, Marcus Perkins said. "You can't think of one without thinking of the other," he said. "They've been inseparable since they were teenagers."

Prince George's police said that Perkins robbed a Chevy Chase Bank branch in the 10000 block of Annapolis Road about 9 a.m. Saturday. An employee turned over money but slipped in a dye pack, police said.

County police officers grew suspicious of a sport-utility vehicle speeding from a shopping center and followed it, police have said. As they did, police saw the dye pack explode inside the SUV, they said.

The robbery was reported about the same time.

Officers chased the SUV for about 20 minutes, said Cpl. Diane Richardson, a police spokeswoman. It eventually came to a stop. At some point, "he raised a handgun, and that's when the officers" fired "multiple shots," she said.

Gail Perkins, who is an ocean analyst for the federal government, said yesterday that her husband was a native of Bishopville, S.C. "He was my knight in shining armor, and I was his queen," she said.

Fred Perkins was president of a civic association in Capitol Heights before he moved to the Marleigh community in Bowie, where he was chairman of a neighborhood watch, his son said. His father owned a gun, but his son said he had never seen it.

He said his father worked for Quality Services International, a contractor at Walter Reed, supervising work on heating and ventilation systems and doing other maintenance work.

Less than three years ago, according to property records, Fred and Gail Perkins paid $725,000 for their house, taking out two mortgages and putting no money down.

Marcus Perkins said his parents were "doing great" financially.

"We have always been fine, unless there was something that he didn't share with us," Perkins said.

Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.