Man accused of fatal shooting outside American Legion had been banned from club
The man accused of fatally shooting an American Legion employee in the club’s parking lot earlier this month had fired the same gun at the same post five years earlier and had been barred from the location, according to an affidavit released in the case.
40-year-old Tristan Miles is charged with killing 56-year-old Darnell Guiden. Authorities allege Miles shot Guiden outside American Legion Post 273 at 1335 N Hydraulic. Police found Guiden bleeding out in his truck after Miles reported the shooting to 911 himself, according to the affidavit.
Miles, a former employee at the club, had been banned until 2045 after having “had some problems,” the court document said.
But Miles didn’t enter the American Legion the evening of March 2.
Video of the shooting captured by the Legion’s cameras showed Guiden left the post and got into his 1998 Chevrolet pickup truck in the parking lot at 7:33 p.m., the affidavit detailed. Forty-six seconds later, Miles can be seen approaching the north end of the parking lot and walking up behind Guiden’s truck. He approached the driver’s side door with his right hand in his hoodie pocket before pulling out a handgun and firing two shots into the truck, the court document alleged.
He then walked away from the truck and toward the club. He didn’t enter the post, but instead returned to the vehicle and fired several more rounds, a detective with Wichita police wrote in the sworn statement.
“At 19:34:05 hours, Tristan walks back to the truck as Darnell appears to be trying to close his door,” the detective detailed. “Tristan opens the driver’s door as the truck starts to back up and fires another round into the truck.”
The truck continued to back up, and Miles fired two more shots into the truck’s windshield before aiming through the now-broken passenger window and opening fire again, the court document alleges. Guiden’s truck stopped going backward and rolled forward into the concrete parking block.
Miles could then be seen walking away from and back toward the parking lot. He picked up a cartridge and loaded it into the gun before walking back to the club’s entrance, racking the slide on the gun on the way.
He then picked up one last cartridge before walking away from the post, toward Hydraulic.
After the shooting, a nurse and patron of the bar provided medical care to Guiden, who had been shot several times in his upper body. He was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead soon after arrival.
Miles, meanwhile, called 911 and told the dispatcher he had shot Guiden, the document said. He gave his description to officers before returning to the scene and putting his gun on the ground behind Guiden’s truck. He was then taken into police custody.
Police found seven casings around and inside the truck, the affidavit said. Miles’ gun, a Taurus 9mm handgun, had been legally purchased by Miles in 2018. Law enforcement records indicated that during a shots-fired investigation at the same American Legion post in 2021, Miles told police he had fired the Taurus to help break up a fight there.
Miles has been charged with three felonies: intentional and premeditated first-degree murder, an alternative count of first-degree murder in commission of a felony and criminal discharge of a firearm, court records show. He’s due in court again on April 23.
