Sheriff’s Office responds to shooting at Fairfax home

The 2020 Memorial Day weekend literally started with a bang in Osage County.

Sheriff Eddie Virden said shortly after 9:30 a.m. Saturday that he and his deputies were out looking for a suspect identified as Skylar Yarber, 28, who was wanted in connection with a shooting in Fairfax.

Yarber was reportedly driving a 2014 Jeep Patriot, and Virden said the suspect was initially thought to possibly have three children with him; however, the Sheriff’s Office was able to confirm that the suspect reportedly dropped the children off prior to the shooting incident, Virden clarified.

The Sheriff’s Office received a call about the shooting somewhere in the 1:30 a.m. to 2 a.m. time frame Saturday, Virden said he recalled. The victim was airlifted and his condition was not immediately known.

Virden, speaking briefly by telephone as the investigation continued, characterized the shooting as having arisen from what was likely “a domestic-type situation.” The sheriff said he understood that Yarber and the man he shot were brothers-in-law.

Virden said he understood the weapon used in the incident was a shotgun, and that Yarber reportedly forced his way into the home of the victim.

“He’d been there earlier in the evening and left, and returned,” Virden said, describing what he had been told about the sequence of events.

In unrelated law-enforcement matters, the sheriff said the overnight period from Friday to Saturday had apparently been lively in several places in Osage County. He mentioned that there had been a report of a drive-by shooting in Wynona. There had been no injuries in the drive-by shooting, but a vehicle parked near a residence had been shot multiple times, he said. That incident was still under investigation.

Virden said he also understood that someone reportedly jumped off the parking garage at the Osage Casino on 36th Street North. The jump reportedly resulted in an injury or injuries, but not in death, he said.