2016-03-31 Farner

#street/VanBuren/S/1900-block/1910 #event/death/suspicious #type/shooting/accidential #unsolved/solved #people/F/Farner/Chad-Alan

Chad Farner shooting

Chad Alan Farner, a 39-year-old Amarillo businessman, was fatally shot in the upper body on the night of March 31, 2016, at a friend's home in the 1900 block of South Van Buren Street in central Amarillo, Texas, one block south of Interstate 40. Police identified the person who fired the shot within days, and a friend of Farner's described the incident as an accidental "freak accident" involving a misfired gun. As of the most recent available reporting, no arrest or public resolution of the case had been announced.

Background

Chad Alan Farner was born in Amarillo on July 17, 1976, to Richard Farner and Debra Taylor Farner. He attended Caprock High School before graduating from Randall High School in 1994, and later attended Amarillo College for one year

He married Tasha Weldon on February 14, 2000, in Amarillo. Farner worked at Great Western Directories for five and a half years and spent 14 years with AIG. He also owned All Game Apparel, a business that supplied uniforms to sports teams throughout the Amarillo area

Farner was remembered by family for his generosity, his love of riding motorcycles with friends, and his devotion to his two daughters, Cali D'Ann Farner and Caitlyn Jade Farner, whose theater, basketball, and track activities he enjoyed attending. He was preceded in death by his grandfathers, Rev. Alvin E. Taylor, C. David Farner, and J.L. Pipes. He was survived by his daughters; his mother, Debra Taylor of Lubbock; his father, Rick Farner, and stepmother Rhonda, of Lubbock; grandmothers Reba Pipes of Lubbock and June Farner of Amarillo; stepsister Mandy Fuller and her husband James of Lubbock; and numerous aunts, uncles, and cousins

The shooting

At approximately 9:42–9:45 p.m. on Thursday, March 31, 2016, Amarillo police responded to a home at 1910 S. Van Buren St., one block south of Interstate 40. Officers found Farner suffering from a gunshot wound to his upper body.

Paramedics transported Farner by ambulance to an Amarillo-area hospital, where he later died

A justice of the peace ordered an autopsy, performed the following morning (Friday, April 1) in Lubbock, Texas. The Potter-Randall Special Crimes Unit assumed responsibility for the investigation.

Several people who were at or near the residence at the time of the shooting were taken to the Special Crimes Unit for questioning. Police did not publicly identify those individuals, describe the events leading up to the shooting, or confirm that a weapon had been recovered.

Identification of shooter and "freak accident" account

By Monday, April 4, 2016, homicide detectives had identified the person who shot and killed Farner, though police stated that no arrests had been made in the case.

Dustin Berry, a childhood friend of Farner's who organized a fundraiser for his family, described the shooting as accidental: "It's a tragedy, a freak accident," Berry said. "It was a misfire of a gun that ricocheted, hit the floor and unfortunately hit Chad. It's crushing for everybody who was there and even more crushing for the one who was holding the weapon."

No publicly available reporting identifies the shooter by name, describes an arrest, or confirms a formal resolution of the case.

Fundraiser for Farner's daughters

Farner's death left his two daughters, Cali (then a freshman at Amarillo College) and Caitlyn (then a freshman at Amarillo High School), without their father. Dustin Berry started a YouCaring fundraiser to help cover college tuition costs for the girls, with a goal of $15,000. As of April 4, 2016, the fundraiser had raised $2,630

People involved

Name	Role	Age (at time)	Outcome
Chad Alan Farner	Victim	39	Died from a gunshot wound to the upper body, March 31, 2016
Unidentified shooter	Alleged shooter, present at the residence	—	Identified by detectives by April 4, 2016; no arrest publicly announced
Dustin Berry	Childhood friend of Farner's; public spokesperson for the family; fundraiser organizer	—	Not present at the shooting; described the incident as an accident

Timeline

Date	Event
July 17, 1976	Chad Alan Farner born in Amarillo
1994	Farner graduates from Randall High School
February 14, 2000	Farner marries Tasha Weldon in Amarillo
March 31, 2016, ~9:42–9:45 p.m.	Farner shot in the upper body at a friend's home at 1910 S. Van Buren St.; taken to hospital, later dies
April 1, 2016	Autopsy conducted in Lubbock; KFDA reports on the shooting
April 4, 2016	Amarillo Globe-News reports detectives have identified the shooter; no arrest announced; friend describes shooting as a "freak accident"; fundraiser for daughters underway
Undated (post-2016)	Case remains publicly unresolved; no arrest or resolution reported