SEDGWICK COUNTY — The pilot of a small plane avoided injury after an accident just after 10 a.m. Tuesday in Sedgwick County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1966 Mooney M20C piloted by Blair Gordon Gill, 56, Wichita, was doing touch-and-go landings at Jabara Airport, 3512 North Webb Road in Wichita.

The pilot forgot to retract his landing gear after completing his first touch-and-go. On his second landing, the pilot thought he was extending the landing gear but was in fact retracting it.

This resulted in a gear-up landing on Runway 18, according to the KHP. Gill was not injured.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A man was convicted Tuesday in a shooting that killed three people in a popular downtown area of the Kansas college town.

Anthony Roberts Jr., 22, of Topeka, was found guilty of two counts of first-degree felony murder, one count of second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder.

Deputy District Attorney David Melton said Roberts opened fire in October 2017 after he and his friends confronted a group of other Topeka men with whom they had “bad blood” as crowds were leaving bars, concerts and other events on the main downtown Lawrence street.

But Roberts’ attorneys argued that he acted in self-defense and was legally openly carrying a gun with an extended magazine before the shooting.

“Anthony and his friends are being pummeled, and Anthony’s about to be next,” said Joshua Seiden, one of two defense attorneys representing Roberts. “Anthony saw guns being drawn, he had no time to think, and he reacted. Anthony drew his gun, a 9-millimeter Glock. To protect his friends and to protect himself, Anthony fired that Glock.”

The gunfire killed 22-year-old Leah Brown, of Shawnee; 20-year-old Colwin Lynn Henderson, of Topeka; and 24-year-old Tre’Mel Dupree Dean-Rayton, of Topeka. Two others were wounded but survived. Brown was the only victim who knew no one else involved.

But Douglas County District Attorney Charles Branson urged jurors not to excuse Roberts’ action as self-defense. He said forensic testing showed all 15 9mm shell casings left behind in the area were fired by Roberts’ Glock 26.

“There was no self-defense in this case,” he said. “There simply was murder.”

A second defendant was convicted previously of attempted voluntary manslaughter, and a third of misdemeanor battery.

Sentencing is set for Aug. 1. The maximum sentence is life imprisonment.

SALINE COUNTY – On June 25, 2016, 57-year-old Lori Heimer was found deceased in her home in rural Saline County. Investigators from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation and the Saline County Sheriff’s Office have followed hundreds of leads in an effort to hold Heimer’s attacker accountable. On the anniversary of her murder, the investigation is active and ongoing, but the case remains unsolved.

At the time of her death, Heimer operated Lori’s Poodle Patch, a dog breeding business, from her home in Assaria. Authorities continue to seek information from anyone who had contact with Heimer through this dog business, in the month of June 2016.

Anyone with information about the death of Lori Heimer is urged to contact 1-800-KS-CRIME. Callers may remain anonymous.

— KBI

MANHATTAN — A new risk assessment model for the transmission of Ebola accurately predicted its spread into the Republic of Uganda, according to the Kansas State University researchers who developed it.

According to a media release from KSU, Caterina Scoglio, professor, and Mahbubul Riad, doctoral student, both in the Mike Wiegers Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the Carl R. Ice College of Engineering at Kansas State University; Musa Sekamatte and Issa Makumbi at Uganda Ministry of Health; and Felix Ocom with the World Health Organization in Uganda, published “Risk assessment of Ebola virus disease spreading in Uganda using a multilayer temporal network” in bioRxiv on May 23.

The paper describes a new model to better predict how diseases like Ebola spread. The model combines data of people’s constant contacts — such as family members and co-workers — with their temporary contacts — such as people in a market or encountered during travel. According to Scoglio, the model should be used as a risk assessment tool to prepare and distribute resources, but it also has been accurate thus far regarding the movement of Ebola from the Democratic Republic of Congo into Uganda.

“This is very a new type of model,” Scoglio said. “Since we consider movement data in addition to constant contacts, we saw that not only are the districts directly bordering Congo at risk but that the districts on the path to some important Ugandan destinations also are at risk.”

In 2018, Scoglio and her collaborators worked with Ugandan officials to collect movement data to model disease progression and find areas most at risk. According to the model, the Kasese district was the highest risk area for an infected person to enter the country. The researchers used the model to create a 150-day simulation of possible disease progression in Uganda and produced a map of 23 Ugandan districts at risk.

The specific scenario used in the simulation is similar to actual events so far. According to the Uganda Health Ministry’s June 18 release, there are three confirmed cases of Ebola in travelers to Uganda — all from one family that entered the country at the Kasese district border.

“The risk assessment maps can be used to allocate and distribute limited resources,” Scoglio said. “Uganda has about 4,000 doses of the new Ebola vaccine. They are vaccinating health workers, communicating about how to prevent spreading diseases, and advising people to limit travel in high-risk areas. We have much respect and admiration for how Uganda has organized the preparedness and now the response.”

The researchers used the simulation of Ebola in Uganda to test their model because there is a lot of traffic coming into the country from the Democratic Republic of Congo for health care, trading and refuge. Ebola is highly contagious through physical contact with an infected person and their bodily fluids.

Scoglio said that even though the real events in Uganda have aligned with the simulated model, the scenario should only be used to mitigate the risk.

“One very important point for the public to understand is the concept of risk and probability with these maps,” Scoglio said. “It should not be interpreted that these red regions will be affected because that will cause panic in the population, but rather these are a guide for allocation of limited resources in regions that could be potentially affected if no mitigations are implemented.”

This model may open a new era in infectious disease management, Scoglio said. She gives credit to Aram Vajdi, doctoral student in electrical and computer engineering at Kansas State University, for developing the framework for the theoretical model based on a multilayer temporal network and the Gillespie algorithm. Scoglio also praised Riad, who applied the data collected from Uganda and how Ebola was transmitted to create the risk assessment.

According to Scoglio, network models used for highly infectious disease risk assessment must be able to anticipate changes in human-to-human contacts — unlike many other models, which are based mainly on constant contacts and constant movement flows. Using these models can help increase the effectiveness of preventive measures by targeting the most critical regions and can help decrease the risk of Ebola and other infectious diseases from spreading.

SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a burglary and have two suspects in custody.

Just after 2a.m. Saturday, police responded to burglary in progress call at Northwest High School1, 1220 North Tyler in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson.

A USD 259 security guard reported seeing two suspects later identified as 26-year-old Cody Stewart and 27-year-old Braden Stewart both of Wichita inside the school.

As officers arrived as the two suspects were exiting the school carrying two fans and made an arrest. They had entered the building through an opening in the roof, according to Davidson.

Police booked the brothers on requested burglary charges. The case will be presented to the Sedgwick County District Attorney.

By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — A 22-year-old St. Joseph man has been charged in connection with the shooting and wounding of a three-year-old girl this past weekend.

Riandten C. E. Brant also faces drug charges.

The Buchanan County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office this afternoon charged Brant with a Class C felony of endangering the welfare of a child in the first degree, claiming that on June 22nd, Brant possessed methamphetamine at 1610 Beattie Street, the residence of the child, identified only as “A.B.” in the felony complaint.

Court papers disclose that police issued a search warrant at the residence and found Brant with 28.5 grams of methamphetamine in the basement of the residence.

Police first went to the residence on a shooting call.

St. Joseph Police says the three-year-old was shot late Saturday morning. She is listed in stable condition.