SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a shooting during a robbery and have confirmed the death of a 16-year-old suspect.

Just after 2:45 p.m, Friday, police responded to a shooting at the B & H Fast Trip, 2796 S. Seneca in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson.

Police located a suspect with a gunshot wound. The investigation revealed three unknown male suspects including 16-year-old suspect entered the store, pointed handguns at an employee and customers, demanding money.

The suspects took money and cigarettes. During the robbery, an armed 42-year-old male customer pulled out his firearm and fired multiple shots toward the suspects, striking the 16-year-old. The other three suspects fled the business.

In addition, the incident is believed to be related to an earlier robbery at 12:10 p.m. on Friday at the Family Dollar Store, 936 S. Woodlawn in Wichita.  A 59-year-old female employee reported three unknown suspects entered the store, pointed handguns at her and demanded property. The suspects who then fled the business took money and cigarettes. 

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — An Oklahoma official says a man sought in the deaths of two people in eastern Kansas has died after he shot himself as law enforcement officers approached him.

Oklahoma Medical Examiner’s Office spokeswoman Amy Elliott confirmed Saturday that

Ben Converse had died and that his organs were being harvested for donation before an autopsy was conducted.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation said Friday that Converse had been located in Tulsa and shot himself with a handgun as officers closed in on him.

Kansas authorities say Converse was a person of interest in the shootings deaths of 36-year-old Molly Wilson and her father, 69-year-old John Tadlock, in Iola, Kansas. The two were found Thursday in their home in Iola, which is about 95 miles (150 kilometers) southwest of Kansas City.

UPDATE 9 p.m. Friday: The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI), and the Iola Police Department, announced that Ben Converse, the person of interest connected to the murders of Molly Wilson and John Tadlock of Iola, Kan., was located in Tulsa, Okla. this evening.

The KBI, the Tulsa Police Department, and the Broken Arrow Police Department located Converse at approximately 5:15 p.m. on Friday evening. Once located, he fled law enforcement on foot. As law enforcement officers approached him near 66^th Street and Mingo in Tulsa, he turned toward them and shot himself with a handgun.

Converse was transported to a Tulsa hospital, where he is currently being treated for a life threatening, self-inflicted gunshot wound.

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ALLEN COUNTY– The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI), the Iola Police Department, and the Allen County Sheriff’s Office are investigating after an Iola man and his daughter were discovered dead in their home Thursday evening.

According to a KBI media release, just after 5 p.m. on Thursday,  the Iola Police Department responded to 114 S. Kentucky in Iola, and discovered the victims who had died from apparent gunshot wounds. Special agents and the KBI Crime Scene Response Team responded to the scene.

The woman who died was identified as 36-year-old Molly E. Wilson. The man was identified as 69-year-old John Tadlock.

A person of interest has been identified as 38-year-old Ben Converse.

Converse is described as a white male, 5-foot-9 and approximately 175 pounds. He has hazel eyes. Converse may be driving a maroon 2011 Kia Forte with Kansas license plate 509 KZS.

He may be in the Oklahoma area. If you see Converse or the vehicle, please do not approach, but contact police.

 

ULYSSES, Kan. (AP) — A 16-year-old Kansas boy will soon earn his high school diploma — and a few days later he’ll travel to Harvard to collect his bachelor’s degree.

Ulysses High School senior Braxton Moral will attend both commencement ceremonies in May, becoming the only student to successfully pursue a four-year high school degree and a bachelor’s degree from Harvard at the same time.

Harvard has changed the rules, Braxton’s father Carlos Moral said, so his son will “the one and only” reaching that milestone. Braxton Moral will be 17 when he gets his diplomas.

Carlos Moral said they began to realize their son was special when he was in the third grade.

“They told us: ‘You need to do something. He’s not just gifted. He’s really, really gifted,'” he said.

Braxton Moral skipped the fourth grade.

The Ulysses school district allowed him to take some high school classes while he was still in middle school. Before high school he took a class offered at Fort Hays State University. Then he was admitted into Harvard.

Braxton Moral simultaneously studied at the high school and the Harvard Extension School. The program typically serves adults who work and can’t attend classes on campus full time.

Ulysses High School math teacher Patsy Love served as the proctor for the Harvard program, administering Moral’s tests in Kansas. Moral spent the summer before his junior year at Harvard’s campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

“We constantly are monitoring Braxton to make sure he is not too overwhelmed,” said Julie Moral, Braxton Moral’s mother. “No achievement is worth him being unhappy.”

Braxton Moral is on track to graduate from the Bachelor of Liberal Arts program, with a major government and a minor in English, said Harry Pierre, associate director of communications for Harvard’s Division of Continuing Education.

Braxton Moral said he hopes to attend Harvard Law School next.

“Politics is end game for me,” he said, though he’s still too young to vote.

SEDGWICK COUNTY— Authorities are investigating a report that a white man kicked a 1-year-old black child in the back at a Wichita grocery store and yelled racial slurs.

Lashantai Whitaker, 29, said in an interview Thursday that her son, Jhavii Fry, was walking through the store Sunday, holding his 11-year-old sister’s hand, when a man kicked the toddler from behind with his cowboy boot. Her son fell facedown. Whitaker says bystanders tackled the man as he yelled racial slurs.

A 31-year-old man identified as Trace Riff, according to the Sedgwick County, Christmas Eve booking report  was released on $3,500 bond hours after he was booked into jail on suspicion of ethnic intimidation, battery and resisting police.

Court records show Riff has spent time in a Kansas mental hospital and has a criminal history that includes drug crimes.

The AP contributed to this report.

FINNEY COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities continue their investigation of a burglary and alleged rape and are asking for the public’s help in identifying the truck and suspect believed involved, according to Garden City Police.