He shot two friends and ran away. Then he returned, police said, to shoot them again

One was shot from behind as he sat in the driver’s seat of a car; the other gunned down as he tried to run away.

The suspect, the same age as the two 21-year-old victims, ran away only to return and open fire again, Fresno police said Friday night in announcing an arrest in the city’s two latest homicides.

Gary Lee Perry Jr., after a two-hour interview with investigators, confessed to killing Scott Alex Gaffney and Brennen Julian Fairhead, two Fresno men who he described as longtime friends, Chief Jerry Dyer said during a news conference at police headquarters.

“It was very apparent, based on his actions,” Dyer said, “that there was an attempt on his part to make sure that neither Gaffney or Fairhead would be able to ever testify for what he did.”

The slayings were Nos. 54 and 55 in a city where there were 39 homicides annually in 2016 and 2015.

About 60 people showed up at the scene for a candelight vigil for the victims a couple of hours before the arrest was announced.

Gaffney and Fairhead were found about 8 p.m. Thursday suffering from multiple gunshot wounds in the 10000 block of Grouse Run in northeast Fresno.

All three – Fairhead in the driver’s seat and Gaffney and Perry in the back for what police would only describe as a prescription narcotics drug deal – reportedly were sitting in a car when the first gunshot was fired.

Fairhead was shot inside the vehicle; Gaffney was hit in the back as he got out and tried to run away, Dyer said.

Perry is believed to have fled, then returned to fire additional rounds at the men before driving away in the car.

Gaffney’s body was found on the sidewalk and Fairhead’s in the roadway. Dyer said it’s unknown whether the shooter and two victims had previously been in the Grouse Run area.

The vehicle was left about a half mile away, where Perry is said to have dumped the gun into a drain and gone into a restaurant near Friant and Fort Washington roads.

From video of the shooting obtained by police, investigators were able to identify the suspect as a man wearing a puffy jacket with a furry hood.

Someone contacted police, saying they saw a man who matched that description at a restaurant. He looked nervous, the tipster said, and asked to use the bathroom before leaving.

Police caught up to Perry on Friday morning at Fairhead’s home in the 5200 block of San Pablo Avenue where he sometimes stayed. He tried to get in but did not have a key. Officers missed him the first time but were waiting there when he came back.

The gun was recovered, Dyer said, but a motive has not been conclusively determined.

“Initially after being (given his Miranda warning against self-incrimination), his intent was to mislead our detectives,” Dyer said. “To lead them to believe that he was not involved in any way, shape or form, he was not at the location, and that he was heartbroken at the loss of his two friends.

“Through some very good investigation technique and interview techniques, our detectives were able to convince him to be truthful, and slowly but surely, they were able to get what we believe to be an accurate accounting of what happened last night.”

On Saturday, Perry was being held in the Fresno County Jail on a $2 million bail, a jail official said.

This story was originally published December 15, 2017 at 9:58 PM with the headline "He shot two friends and ran away. Then he returned, police said, to shoot them again."