The 11-year-old boy gunned down by his troubled Army veteran dad in a tragic murder-suicide at a Nevada airport last week had once penned an award-winning “Father of the Year” essay.
Giovanni Perez, 37, shot himself in the head near an airline ticket counter at the Elko Regional Airport on April 13. His son, 11-year-old Callan West Perez, was found inside a nearby restroom suffering from multiple gunshot wounds, according to the Elko Police Department.
Callan succumbed to his injuries at a hospital later that day.
Police speculated that Perez’s PTSD may have been a contributing factor in the gruesome murder-suicide, but haven’t determined a clear motive and warned they “may never know why Callan’s life was taken.”
Callan’s mother told KUTV that Perez was an Army cook and was deployed to Iraq during his four years of service. It’s not clear if he ever participated in combat.
The mother, who wasn’t identified, explained that she didn’t have custody of Callan, but kept in touch with him over the phone and was actively working to regain custody with help from her parents.
Elko police confirmed the ongoing dispute over Callan’s care and claimed that Perez “was attempting to keep Callan from both the maternal grandparents and his own family” leading up to the murder-suicide.
The duo, hailing from California, were en route to Reno, Nevada “for some unknown reason” when their rental car broke down in Winnemucca, Nevada on April 13 — roughly 165 miles away from their intended destination.
They were towed to Elko, about 290 miles east of Reno, so they could secure a new rental car. At some point, they ducked inside the restroom at the Elko Regional Airport, exited, then doubled-back, police said.
Perez then left the bathroom alone and shot himself near a ticket counter.
Last year, Callan wrote and submitted a “Father of the Year” essay that won third place in his home county.
The competition accepted essays about any male role model who fills a fatherly role in the author’s life, according to the program website. It’s not immediately clear who the subject of Callan’s essay was.
Callan’s surviving family remembered him as a spirited boy “wise beyond his years” who “was so much more than this tragedy” that took his life.
“He had the biggest heart and the sweetest soul. Not to mention a smile that lit up every room he entered. He deserved so much more life, so many more laughs, and a future that was stolen far too soon,” they wrote in a heartbreaking statement on GoFundMe.
The fundraiser was just $700 short of its $13,000 goal on Wednesday afternoon.