ST. PETE, Fla. — A child has been rescued and a man taken into custody after he barricaded himself and the child inside his truck early Tuesday morning.
According to police, Matthew Perkins, 32, took his 3-year-old son from a home in St. Petersburg. Police said they were called to the home for a domestic situation at 11:39 p.m. on Monday.
Perkins drove himself and the child off in his 2009 pickup truck, which police found crashed and lodged under the I-275 overpass on Gandy Boulevard around 12:30 a.m.
For several hours, police attempted to negotiate with Perkins but said it was not successful.
"He refused to communicate with us in any way, shape, or form. We tried to contact him through cell phones, as well as through the armored vehicle we have to go back and forth to make contact," said Michael Kovacsev, the Assistant Chief of St. Pete Police department. "He refused to make any contact with us. He put himself in the back seat of the truck and put the child near or on top of him. A couple of times, he used the child as a shield. But the bottom line is at no point did he ever speak to us even though we tried for well over three to four hours to get a dialogue going with him."
Although police initially thought he was armed, they later discovered Perkins was holding a pair of scissors close to the child's neck and head. They also said Perkins was acting erratically.
"He armed himself with a pair of scissors, and we just did not feel comfortable that the child was that close to him, so we made the decision to get the child out of there," said Kovacsev.
The SWAT team deployed SPOT, a robotic dog, in an attempt to make contact with him. They used this as a way to not only get a closer eye on the truck, but also what was happening on the inside.
Around 4:30 a.m., the concerns for the child became heightened. Officers moved in to rescue the child and arrest Perkins.
Perkins was taken into custody and faces charges that include false imprisonment, aggravated child abuse and aggravated assault. He was previously arrested last year in March for domestic violence, but the charge was dropped after Perkins completed a Domestic Violence Deferred Prosecution Program Agreement.
This story will continue to be updated when more information is provided.
