A man accused of being the gunman in an April 2020 shooting that injured a woman out jogging near her Pigeon Point neighborhood was found not guilty by reason of insanity and will not go to trial, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Isaiah Clayton Perdue, 27, of North Charleston, South Carolina, was charged with attempted murder and possession of a weapon in the commission of a violent crime, court records show.
On April 22, 2020, Perdue was driving in Beaufort shortly after having purchased a gun from an online ad placed by an off-duty Dorchester County Sheriff’s Office deputy. While driving, Perdue saw a woman, identified as Anne Dickerson, jogging down Lafayette Street near Pigeon Point, and got out of the car to fire three shots, one of which hit Dickerson. police said.
On April 15, just days before the shooting, the Beaufort Police Department said Perdue allegedly ran from a motel in North Charleston after they say he attacked and seriously injured another woman with a machete. He was charged in that incident on April 23, 2020, with attempted murder and possession of a weapon in the commission of a violent crime.
Perdue’s charges in the earlier incident are still pending, court records show.
Perdue was due back in court Wednesday morning in the Beaufort shooting for a competency hearing that would determine whether he could stand trial. Before the hearing, Perdue had been evaluated by at least two psychiatrists, who determined he had mental health issues and a substance abuse disorder.
Both Perdue’s attorney, Grant Smaldone, and prosecutors from the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, agreed with the psychiatrists’ conclusion, and Judge Brooks Goldsmith found him not guilty by reason of insanity, meaning he will not go to trial.
“The whole process surrounding this situation has been tragic,” said Smaldone.
Dickerson told The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette that she is anxious about the court’s decision.
“It’s upsetting to me in terms of I don’t know what will happen,” she said. “It’s the uncertainty of the lack of a sentence that bothers me.”
Perdue will remain in custody either in the Beaufort County Detention Center or the Charleston County Detention Center before being taken to the South Carolina Department of Mental Health for evaluation. Another hearing will be scheduled to determine a treatment plan.
‘More resilient than most people’
Three years later and the details about what happened on April 22, 2020, are still a bit unclear for Dickerson. She remembers being out on a run in Pigeon Point, something she did about three to four times a week before the shooting, and a car pulling up to the curb next to her. A man got out, took two steps toward her, and shots were fired, one of which hit her in the left shoulder.
“I hit the ground and he drove off,” she told the Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette.
Dickerson, who had never met Perdue, was airlifted to the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. There, she underwent surgery, had a tracheotomy and was put on a feeding tube for weeks. The bullet had damaged nerves in her shoulder and three years she still cannot lift the arm above her waist to eat or blow dry her hair, she said.
Once she was home from the hospital, Dickerson said she couldn’t drive down the road where she was shot without having panic attacks for at least a year.
Ten months after the shooting, she went on her first run but admits she now goes a different route.
“I was determined not to let it stop me,” she said. “I’m probably a lot more resilient than most people.”
Despite her attempts to return to a normal life, Dickerson, who was previously involved with gun safety groups, said she wishes something would change.
“I’m so full of anger about the gun situation in this country, and in South Carolina in particular,” Dickerson said. “Anyone with a gun can sell to anyone else with no background check, no responsibility.”
Gun Violence in South Carolina
S.C. Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel released a statement on gun violence in the state Tuesday:
“I am extremely concerned by the increasing number of murders and young people with guns in our state,” Keel said in the wake of a shooting in the town of Isle of Palms, South Carolina, that injured six people. “Gangs, drugs, and criminals’ easy access to guns continue to play a significant role in the violence we have seen in South Carolina.”
In the past decade, the murder rate increased 52.2% in South Carolina, Keel said in his statement.
Tuesday, The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette reported two separate shooting deaths in Beaufort County in as many days. The two who died were 32-year-old Shanelle Nimmons of Bluffton and 21-year-old Daveion Reed of Beaufort.
When we publish mugshots
The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette publishes police booking photos, or mugshots, in the following instances:
- In situations where a public figure or someone in a position of public trust is arrested
- In cases where there is an immediate and widespread threat to public safety
- In cases where the arrested person is accused of a crime reporters have evidence to believe involved numerous, unknown victims
Reporters will avoid using mugshots as lead images for online articles in order to limit their circulation on social media, except in cases where the public is served by the immediate identification of the accused. Reporters and editors may use discretion in situations that don’t meet the criteria outlined in this policy but still present a compelling reason to publish a mugshot.