ROWAN COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18) — A former Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office deputy was booked Friday into the Rowan County Detention Center in connection with a reported off-duty attack on a gas station owner in Mount Sterling.
Richard Jordan Perri is charged with first-degree strangulation, three counts of first-degree wanton endangerment, and fourth-degree assault (minor injury), according to Kentucky State Police.
Perri was fired from the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday, Sheriff David Charles confirmed.
“This does not reflect the values and standards of our agency which we demand of our employees,” Charles said Thursday.
The owner of the gas station, Ifran Saeed, said Perri mentioned he was a police officer during the incident on Sunday at the Mount Sterling gas station.
"So I said ‘a police officer can’t do like that, they’re supposed to protect people, not hurt people,’” Saeed said Friday.
Saeed said the altercation occurred after Perri and another man arrived at the gas station Sunday night asking to be paid for an agreement they'd made to clear snow from the station's parking lot.
Saeed said he told Perri that the parking lot was not cleared before the rain washed away the snow and suggested they check the business's cameras to see if the job was done. After that, Saeed said Perri got angry, choked him multiple times and dragged him outside.
“I was so scared," Saeed said. "I was scared for my life, I’ve never had a situation like this before, I couldn’t even think right.”
The incident was captured on the gas station's surveillance cameras.
