One officer charged with murder in the death of Steve Perkins

Morgan County District Attorney Steve Anderson announced during a press conference Friday that a grand jury returned an indictment of murder against one of four Decatur Police officers involved in the shooting death of Steve Perkins. 

Anderson said the grand jury decided to indict Mac Bailey Marquette for the murder of Perkins following the shooting in September. Marquette was arrested by the Morgan County Sheriff’s Office and booked into the Morgan County Jail with a $30,000 bond on Friday as well. Marquette bonded out 36 minutes later. 

“As a result of the facts and the evidence presented in this case the grand jury unanimously returned an indictment against Mac Bailey Marquette charging him with the crime of murder,” Anderson said. “Again, after having considered all of the facts and evidence in the case the grand jury agreed unanimously that there were no violations with regards to the laws of the state of Alabama against any other officer.” 

The three other officers aside from Marquette included Joey Williams, Vance Summers and Christopher Mukkadam. Decatur Mayor Tab Bowling fired three of the officers and suspended another last month, a decision which all of the officers have appealed. Those hearings are scheduled to take place from Jan. 30 to Feb. 2

Marquette shot and killed Perkins outside of his home on Sept. 29 after attempting to stop his car from being towed. Perkins initially prevented the tow truck driver from towing his car but the driver returned with police. However, security camera footage from that night demonstrates the officers never identified themselves and hid alongside Perkins’ house and across the street after arriving at his residence.

Perkins came outside and tried to get the tow truck driver to stop again when an officer came from around the corner of the house. Within about a second of issuing a command to Perkins, the officer shot 18 times killing Perkins.

Anderson said in a Q&A portion of the press conference that he would not be releasing the body camera footage publicly because it could taint the opinion of the jury pool. Anderson did say that he has spoken with Perkins’ family and given them the option of viewing the body camera footage. 

Anderson would not comment on whether Perkins was holding a gun or not when he was shot due to that being a fact in the case. Anderson said the next step will be for Marquette to be arraigned and eventually a trial will be set. 

“The job now falls to me and my office to prosecute this case and to seek justice,” Anderson stated.