Murder suspect told authorities he’d shot accused pedophile days before arrest
Court filing: Police initially released Sioux Falls man ahead of discovering deceased victim
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article errored in stating the alleged sexual assault victim was examined at an out-of-state medical facility. The examination took place at Avera Health. The Dakota Scout strives for accuracy and regrets the mistake.
A Sioux Falls man booked on a murder charge over the weekend asked police to arrest him after telling them he’d killed a “f*#king pedophile” before authorities became aware the city’s eighth murder of the year had occurred.
Police say they were responding to a call related to a child sex crime early Saturday in north-central Sioux Falls when they found the accused had been shot dead.
According to court documents, 30-year-old Dylan Tyler Farmer was arrested Sunday on first- and second-degree murder charges stemming from the death of Casey Shawn Edward Shaffer, found deceased in an apartment at 808 W. Bailey Street the prior day.
The arrest warrant for Farmer alleges police received a call around 3 a.m. Saturday from a mother wanting police presence when returning home from a medical center where her 5-year-old son had been examined for sexual assault, which she accused Shaffer of inflicting.
However, when police entered the apartment, “Shaffer was found lying on the floor in the living room, obviously deceased with what appeared to be multiple gunshot wounds,” according to the arrest warrant. A subsequent search of the residence turned up a credit card belonging to Farmer.
That prompted investigators to run a police records query on Farmer, revealing the Sioux Falls man had attempted to turn himself in at the Minnehaha County Jail a day earlier, telling police at the time he’d “shot this motherf*#cker. I shot him in the face because he touched a boy.”
According to the arrest warrant, officers took Farmer to a local shelter “as there was no information to corroborate a homicide had occurred at the time of (initial) contact with the defendant.”
It’s unclear when the shooting occurred, though authorities say it took place while the mother sought medical attention for her son. Authorities are also not revealing where Farmer was apprehended; however, county jail records show he was arrested at 3:50 a.m. Sunday.
Aaron Nyberg, a lieutenant with the Sioux Falls Police Department, said during a Monday morning news conference that Shaffer died from multiple gunshot wounds and appeared to have been shot in the head with a small-caliber rifle.
“Detectives are actively investigating and following up on leads,” he said.
