Online video gamers heard gunshots in Kansas killings from hundreds of miles away

WICHITA, Kan. -- A Houston man playing video games in an online group said he and others heard the gunshots that hundreds of miles away killed a Kansas man and his mother this past weekend.

Three to four players, including one from Canada, were playing online Saturday night when one of them and his mother were shot, The Wichita Eagle reported. The players could hear, but not see, each other.

Among the players that evening was 23-year-old Cody Ha, who lived with his 62-year-old mother, Huong Pham, in Wichita. Also online that night from Houston was Ha's friend Ashley Martinez. Around 10 p.m., Martinez said he and the other players heard popping noises so loud it hurt his ears under the headphones - at least two shots from what sounded like a handgun.

Martinez said the players thought they might be overreacting, "because you don't expect to hear that." When they called Ha's number, they could hear it ringing.

They also listened as Ha's sister she found the bodies: "She was panicking ... she was on the phone. She said she didn't want to touch them. She said she didn't feel safe."

Police have said that Ha's sister returned home that evening and found her brother and mother covered in blood and unconscious.

The next morning Martinez and a friend had an online chat with a Wichita police detective: "We told him exactly what we heard on our end," Martinez said.

Authorities have not disclosed a motive and are seeking tips to help solve the case.