Christopher Alexander Piedrasanta Perez, 23, a Hispanic/Latino man, was killed in an ambush-style shooting just after midnight on May 30, 2025, in Durham, North Carolina. Police found him and two women shot inside a dark-colored Honda near the entrance to Whippoorwill Park on Rowemont Drive in the Braggtown area; the women survived but were seriously injured.
Initial reports from that morning described a flurry of 911 calls about gunfire around the 1600 block, and investigators later documented a scene strewn with shell casings.
Detectives pieced together a picture of a calculated attack. According to an arrest warrant account reported in local and national outlets, two or three assailants approached from nearby woods and opened fire on the parked car, leaving more than 40 spent casings from multiple firearms. Surveillance footage reportedly captured two figures emerging from the trees. The gathering in the car had been tied to a brewing conflict over a romantic relationship, a thread police traced as they worked the case.
In August, the investigation produced arrests. On August 18, 2025, authorities charged 18-year-old Gracie Elizabeth Faye Landa—who had been reported missing from Florida since 2023—with murder in connection with the shooting. She was booked into the Durham County jail and denied bond at an initial court appearance; a subsequent court date was set for September 11. Coverage noted that her exact role at the scene remained unclear in the public record.
Days later, a second suspect was taken into custody. News reports identified 24-year-old Edy Reyes as being arrested on a charge of first-degree murder on August 22, with one account indicating he is the father of his co-defendant’s child. Authorities have not publicly detailed how each suspect is alleged to have participated in the attack, but both arrests were tied by reporters to the same May 30 ambush that left Piedrasanta Perez dead and two women wounded.
Obituaries and memorial sites record Piedrasanta Perez’s name, age, and date of death, while local coverage fixes the place and hour of the shooting. The portrait that emerges is of a targeted burst of violence at the edge of a neighborhood park, a sudden eruption that shattered a quiet stretch of road and launched a months-long search that ultimately reached across state lines to find at least one suspect who had vanished.
