The jail inmate who was shot and killed in a fight with a corrections officer Wednesday afternoon at a Tucson hospital was facing charges in the death of his 4-year-old daughter, records show.
Nathan Peru, 31, was receiving care at Banner University Medical Center South about 1 p.m. when he got into an altercation with the corrections officer, Caitlin Acosta, who has worked at the department for five years, said a news release Thursday that identified them both.
Acosta
No one else was injured.
Peru
Peru was jailed on charges of two counts of sexual conduct with a minor, theft, burglary and endangerment, the release said.
Peru was arrested in the March 2024 death of his daughter, whom he initially told investigators had drowned when she fell in the tub while taking a bath, court records show.
An autopsy deemed her death a homicide by an undetermined cause, with the possibility of drowning. But it also found blunt force injuries and evidence of sexual assault, court records said.
On the day of the girl’s death, Peru told officers he was outside his home near North Flowing Wells and West Wetmore roads and heard a loud “thump.” When he went inside to investigate the noise, he saw his daughter “face down in the bathtub,” court records say.
The multi-agency Pima County Regional Critical Incident Team, which investigates officer-involved shootings here, is handling the criminal probe of the shooting at the hospital. Oro Valley police is the primary investigating agency, and Tucson police is the secondary agency.
