Vials of testosterone, anger-management class materials, guns and ammunition were found in the Fitchburg apartment of a man accused of shooting a man to death Tuesday night.
The shooting brought to a close a first date gone terribly wrong, police said Friday.
Perry E. Lucas, 28, was in his Leopold Way apartment, on a first date with a woman, when his former girlfriend, who was still living at the apartment, came home to pick up some clothes for the night, Fitchburg Police Lt. Todd Stetzer said.
An argument broke out, and as companions of Lucas’ former girlfriend were walking away down the hall, Perry began firing a 9mm handgun at them, Stetzer said.
Detarius Martin, 23, was pronounced dead from gunshot wounds at UW Hospital, while his brother, Chukarius Martin, 27, was wounded. Lucas is in the Dane County Jail on a tentative charge of first-degree intentional homicide and could appear in court on Monday, Stetzer said.
According to a search warrant filed in court on Friday, police took three guns from Lucas’ apartment, including the handgun, an SKS .223-caliber assault rifle and a 12-gauge shotgun.
Stetzer said the guns were not illegal, but police are trying to determine where they were purchased. He said Lucas, an Iraq War veteran, has lived in Texas and Louisiana.
Family members have said he came back from Iraq with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. In addition to guns and ammunition, the search warrant indicates that police found a box of vials containing the male hormone testosterone; packaged hypodermic needles; anger management class materials and an Army training manual.
Stetzer said the testosterone probably belonged to Lucas, but police have to “shore up” ownership of the anger management materials.
Testosterone has legitimate medical applications but is also used as a performance-enhancing steroid, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
According to the warrant, Sharmarisa A. Hammonds, 21, told police she went to Lucas’ apartment at 3309 Leopold Way with her boyfriend, Detarius Martin, along with Martin’s brother and a woman identified by Stetzer as Danyelle Dalbec, who was Lucas’ former girlfriend.
After an argument broke out between a man and woman in the apartment, she and the Martin brothers walked away with Hammonds in the lead. She said she saw Lucas standing in the doorway with a handgun and got out of the hall. Within seconds she heard gunshots, the warrant states, and Chukarius and Detarius Martin ran to her saying they had been shot.
In a phone call to 911, the warrant states, Lucas told a dispatcher that he had taken out a gun and shot some people who had come to his apartment and “attacked me.”
But Stetzer said the contact between the people in the apartment had ended and they were walking away when Lucas came out of the apartment and fired at them.
He didn’t fire at the former girlfriend, Dalbec. In an interview Friday, Dalbec said she didn’t see the shooting, that she had just met the Martins that day, and she had not moved out of the apartment.
“As far as I’m concerned, we’re still together,” Dalbec said. “We had some issues sometimes, like everyone does.”
She and Lucas started dating around Christmas. She said Tuesday night’s events have blurred in her mind.
“He’s not a violent person. He gets frustrated like anyone else at times,” Dalbec said.