NASHUA – A city man will serve three to six years in prison for shooting at another motorist in an apparent fit of road rage.

Ryan Perkins, 24, formerly of 62 Gillis St., pleaded guilty Monday to charges of second-degree assault and reckless conduct stemming from the Feb. 6 shooting, which both he and lawyers in the case said was an essentially inexplicable, impulsive act.

Perkins told police that another driver cut him off while they were both heading into Nashua on Route 111, and that he wanted to scare him, police said after his arrest.

The other driver, Douglas Detwiler, then 44, of Nashua, told police he hadn’t noticed anything until he heard a loud noise while another pickup truck passed his own as they were crossing Veterans Memorial Bridge. Two witnesses driving behind the two vehicles said they saw the darker truck speed around Detwiler’s truck, heard three loud “pops” and saw the dark truck speed off into Nashua, police said.

Detwiler thought at first that a rock had hit his window, but he soon realized his shoulder was injured and drove himself to Southern New Hampshire Medical Center, Assistant Hillsborough County Attorney Kent Smith said.

A doctor told Detwiler that had he been a few inches shorter, he’d be dead, Detwiler told the judge Monday. Detwiler said the wound from the 9 mm bullet proved relatively minor, but he spent many long, anxious nights before Perkins’ arrest more than a week afterward, and the experience of being shot remains unsettling.

“I was simply returning home from dinner, and in one second, my life was changed forever,” he said. “The fact that the defendant didn’t kill me is somewhat of a miracle.”

“My physical wound was not that deep. It has healed,” Detwiler said. Though he said he hasn’t required counseling, he added, “I think the psychological effects run deeper.”

Police credited an anonymous tipster who called the Nashua Crime Line with leading them to Perkins. Detwiler and witnesses later identified Perkins from a photo lineup, police said, and Perkins confessed when questioned, Smith said.

Detwiler supported the plea bargain that Perkins and his lawyer, public defender Brianna Sinon, reached with the prosecutor, saying that he didn’t want to see someone so young put away for too long.

Three to six years is the mandatory minimum sentence for a felony involving a firearm in New Hampshire. Several of Perkins’ family members attended the hearing but declined to speak in court.

Superior court Judge Diane Nicolosi rejected the initial plea deal, however, and ordered that an additional, two- to four-year sentence remain suspended for six years after Perkins gets out of prison, rather than just run at the same time as his three- to six-year prison term. Perkins also was ordered to pay more than $2,000 restitution to Detwiler.

Perkins had no prior criminal record. A high school graduate, he had worked in a limousine factory in Massachusetts before being laid off and was looking for work at the time of the incident, Sinon told the judge.

Perkins told police he had taken his stepfather’s Ruger P85 9 mm pistol and was shooting in Litchfield earlier that evening. Perkins told police he fired one round in the air and one toward Detwiler’s 2002 Chevrolet Silverado, Smith said.

Perkins was eventually released on bail, but his bail was revoked after he was arrested on a DWI charge in Merrimack in June, Smith said. The 107 days that he spent in jail will count toward his prison sentence.

Andrew Wolfe can be reached at 594-6410 or awolfe@nashuatelegraph.com.