GAITHERSBURG, Md. (WUSA9) -- The gunman in a murder-suicide Tuesday morning at a Germantown gas station had an extensive criminal history including drug and firearms charges.
On Wednesday, Montgomery County police identified Johnnie Perkins, 42, as the gunman in the murder-suicide. Police say he killed Shakina Marie Perkins-Moody, 34, of Germantown, Md. Police do not know whether the two were boyfriend and girlfriend or married.
In 2012, Perkins was sentenced to at least eight years in prison for narcotics distribution. And in just the last several months, he's been arrested in the D.C. area for handgun, drug and assault charges.
Montgomery County police officials say this crime should have never happened.
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"Johnnie Perkins should not have been on the street and free to commit this murder. He had an extensive criminal history, including recent firearms arrests and other violent crimes," Montgomery County police chief Thomas Manger said in a statement.
Perkins' most recent arrest in the D.C. area was on July 12 for driving under the influence of alcohol. He was also charged with handgun and drug possession offenses after a gun and drugs were found in his car.
Witnesses told WUSA9 they were beyond distraught by what they saw.
"I just was looking at the guy. He hopped out of the car and he shot himself right in the temple," Adrian Jefferson said.
Jefferson heard a single gunshot and saw a woman slumped behind the steering wheel of an SUV at the gas station. The gunman's bullet passed through his wife's jaw and shattered the driver's side window.
"It's not what you want to witness in a lifetime. At all," Jefferson said.
Police say Perkins-Moody's 16-year-old daughter was in the store to pay for the gas when Perkins-Moody and Perkins began an argument that culminated with violence. A witness told WUSA9 she ran to a business next door for help.
"She calls her Grandma and she's like Grandma, he killed my Mom. She's just going crazy, screaming and crying. She's shaking," Ryan Salandy, a witness said.
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