Santa Rosa police find drugs, loaded gun

An officer investigating an illegal campsite in Santa Rosa on Saturday morning found a loaded gun and methamphetamine on a man who led police on a foot chase, authorities said.

Willie Perryman, 40, of Santa Rosa, who was on probation from a prior felony conviction, was booked into the Sonoma County Jail on suspicion of possessing the drugs and a loaded gun with its serial number removed, Sgt. Robert Reynolds said.

At about 8:40 a.m., Officer Mike Clark was investigating illegal trespassing and camping on city property off Roseland Avenue near the Joe Rodota Trail. Clark saw a man, later identified as Perryman, and a woman slip through a hole cut in a cyclone fence and run, heading toward the railroad tracks, Reynolds said. The officer called for backup.

Having lost sight of the woman, police chased Perryman to a field near Sebastopol Avenue and Boyd Street, ordering the man to stop. Three officers managed to overcome Perryman, who resisted, and arrest the man, Reynolds said. Perryman had a glass pipe, what appeared to be crystal methamphetamine, ammunition and a backpack with a loaded .32-caliber handgun, Reynolds said.

Perryman was being held on $25,000 bail as William Leepaul Perryman at the jail Saturday on suspicion of being an ex-felon in possession of a loaded firearm, obliterating a gun’s serial number, possessi ng drugs while armed with a loaded firearm, possessing a controlled substance, possessing narcotics paraphernalia, resisting police and violating probation, according to jail records.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.