ELKO, Nev. — Police in Elko are still trying to piece together and come to terms with how something so tragic as Monday's murder-suicide involving an 11-year-old boy could happen in their community.
The town of Elko, which is about 200 miles away from Salt Lake City, is one with just over 20,000 people.
“It typically is pretty quiet," said Elko Regional Airport Manager Jim Foster.
The airport sees about 3,800 travelers each month, and one to two commercial flights a day.
“I’ve grown up with this airport and grown into this airport, and it’s engrained in me,” said Foster.
But Monday’s events changed everything.
"This was a first for me," Foster shared. "It kind of shakes you a different way.”
Father, 11-year-old son identified in Elko murder-suicide:
The Elko Police Department responded to reports of an active shooter at the airport, and found 37-year-old Giovanni Perez dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and his young son, Callan, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds inside a bathroom. Despite being transported to the hospital, Callan later died from his injuries.
“We did find some paperwork inside the vehicle," said Lt. Shane Das with the Elko Police Department. "We believe Mr. Perez, Giovanni, had some mental health issues, so we are exploring that. Other than that, we don’t have a motive as to why he went into the bathroom and did what he did."
The police department is a small team with 44 sworn officers. At the time of the incident, they only had four officers on duty and three emergency dispatchers. It goes without saying that tragedies such as Monday's are taxing for their team.
“This is a tragic incident," said Lt. Das. "Nobody wants to see this. I didn’t expect this 22 years ago when I started this career, and I hope in the next three years before I retire, I hope I never see it again.”
But for Das and Foster, their work continues.
“We’re going to come together as a community," said Foster, "and we’re going to come together as an airport and make sure everyone is taken care of.”
