An 11-year-old boy named Callan was shot and killed by his father, 37-year-old Giovanni Perez, in an Elko Regional Airport restroom on April 13; Perez then died by suicide near a ticket counter, leaving investigators with no clear motive and a community scrambling to understand what led to the tragedy.

Callan was a fourth grader from Merced, California, who had once finished third in a father-of-the-year essay contest where children wrote about what their parent meant to them. Less than a year after that tribute, he was killed while traveling with his father, a contrast that has left neighbors and relatives reeling. Authorities say the pair had been headed toward the Reno area when their rental car broke down and they went to Elko to arrange a replacement vehicle.

Police say Perez and Callan entered an airport restroom together, came out, then returned; during the second visit Perez fatally shot his son. Callan was rushed to North Eastern Nevada Regional Hospital but did not survive. Perez left the restroom and died from a self-inflicted wound near a ticket counter, and a bomb squad later searched the family’s vehicle but found no explosives.

Investigators have described a fraught background, including a custody fight and reports that Perez was trying to keep Callan isolated. Officers quoted that Perez had been “attempting to keep Callan from both the maternal grandparents and his own family.” A missing person’s report was filed from Clovis, California, in December and the two were later located in Ogden, Utah about a month after that report.

Authorities say they are still checking where Perez and Callan were living at the time of their deaths. An Elko police spokesman indicated Ogden was the last place they believed the pair lived, but that follow-up was ongoing. The Merced City School District said Callan had attended Luther Burbank Elementary but was not enrolled for the current school year, a detail that raises questions about how and why he was traveling with his father.

Police publicly noted Perez had claimed he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder “due to his time in the military,” and added: “We are investigating what Giovanni did in the military.” Callan’s mother said Perez served in the U.S. Army for about four years as a cook and had been deployed to Iraq, and she reported long stretches of separation from her son while she worked to regain custody.

Investigators underscore that they still do not have a motive. “We still do not have a motive for this horrific incident and may never know why Callan’s life was taken,” the department stated. That gap—between obvious questions about custody, travel, and military claims and the answers investigators can confirm—remains central to the case.

The family response has been split and raw. A relative named Jil Chiesa wrote that she was “receiving and holding on tightly to anything positive right now,” and shared that Callan’s teacher planned to plant a Redwood tree in his honor and that friends had named a classroom guinea pig after him. She added, “Sweet Callan would be thrilled,” and “Our sweet angel is smiling down, I just know it.”

At the same time, Giovanni’s father, Frank Perez, wrote on a public profile that both would be buried at a military cemetery and receive “full military send off.” He defended his son and noted, “Giovanni provided well for all his sons, including full university funding.” He also wrote, “His battle with mental illness does not reflect on the great father and son he was.”

The facts are stark: an 11-year-old missing from his home district, located in another state, not enrolled in school, and killed while traveling with the man others had tried to separate him from. The case raises urgent questions about custody systems, school reporting, and how missing-person reports were handled. Those questions remain open as law enforcement continues to investigate Perez’s background, service record, and the timeline that led to April 13.