The 44-year-old wife was killed by a single gunshot to the head six days after she called Putnam County, Georgia, 911 to report a case of domestic abuse.
After her initial domestic call six days earlier, Amanda Perrault had told a neighbor, “If you find me dead, I did not kill myself,” according to the trial transcript of Seth Perrault, who was charged with his wife’s murder in 2020 and found guilty on all counts last year., a state agency, reports the lethality of a family violence incident increases by 500% when a firearm is present in the home.
Perrault was at the gun range after his arrest, just two days before his wife was shot dead with one of his pistols. Cherokee County’s standard bond restriction form includes a section reading: “Defendant shall not possess any dangerous weapons, nor be present at any location where same may be found.” But that section was crossed out by hand and signed by the judge, who also ruled: “The accused … works as a law enforcement officer, and that no weapon is alleged to be used in the accused crime.
According to the internal affairs file, Harris’ wife asked Roswell police to take his personal guns as well. “She gave us a tub filled with handguns” and “numerous long guns,” a Roswell lieutenant wrote. , which dismissed the charges after a probationary period. He was banned from possessing weapons until the probation was complete, but the judge allowed him to use a firearm on the gun range to keep his police certification.
InvestigateTV had asked Georgia POST for two years of data on officer-involved family violence investigations — 2019 and 2020 were chosen because more recent cases may not yet have been adjudicated. The POST data shows just five guilty pleas among 37 arrests. Only one of those officers pleaded guilty to his original charges. Four others pleaded to reduced charges or under the First Offender Act that later dismissed their convictions.
The largest group in the data included 30 officers who were put on POST probation. In those cases, the agency’s Probable Cause Committee voted to revoke the officers’ certifications but suspended the revocations for 12 to 36 months. Some also received public reprimands.