KANSAS CITY, KAN. – A Kansas man pleaded guilty  Monday to crashing a car into a Cabela’s store in hopes of stealing guns, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.

Kyle Mendez, 30, Kansas City, Kan., pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to steal guns from a licensed firearms dealer and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon. In his plea, Mendez admitted he crashed a car into an exterior door of a Cabela’s store in Kansas City, Kan. He and co-defendant Brenda Tosh, 27, Kansas City, Kan., took rifles from a firearms section and loaded them into a shopping cart. When police arrived, Mendez fled from the store while police arrested Tosh.

Mendez admitted he had a .45-caliber Taurus handgun in his car during the break-in. He was prohibited from having a gun because of a prior felony conviction.

Mendez is set for sentencing Nov. 26. Both parties have agreed to recommend a sentence of four years in prison.

Co-defendant Tosh pleaded guilty and is set for sentencing Sept. 30.

By JOHN HANNA

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican Rep. Steve Watkins got heat Monday from frustrated eastern Kansas constituents who pressed the freshman congressman to publicly endorse tougher gun laws following recent mass shootings.

Several people left a Watkins town hall meeting in Topeka unhappy that he didn’t commit himself during the event to backing stronger background checks for firearms purchases or a “red flag” law that would allow authorities to seize guns from people deemed a danger to themselves or others. Members of the audience of about 40 interrupted Watkins when he tried to defend the GOP’s record on gun issues.

Watkins told reporters after the meeting that he’s open to looking at a red flag law and at steps to improve existing background checks because he’s willing to consider “what could make a difference.” But he also said he’s still “unequivocally” a supporter of gun rights.

Some of his constituents were unimpressed by what he said during his town hall meeting, such as expressing support for mental health funding or grants to make schools more secure.

“He had no answer,” said Steve Waugh, a retired Topeka resident and unaffiliated voter. “I wasn’t happy with his response.”

Watkins, a former Army officer and military contractor, was a political unknown when he emerged from a crowded GOP primary last year to win the 2nd District seat by less than a percentage point. In 2016, Donald Trump easily carried the district, which has Democratic enclaves in its largest cities of Topeka and Lawrence but also heavily Republican rural areas.

Many Kansas Republicans have long played up their support for gun rights and profited politically by doing so. The state allows gun owners to openly carry their firearms in public and to carry them concealed without a state permit.

But Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, who was elected last year, recently endorsed universal background checks for gun purchases after supporting a red flag law. Her endorsement of stronger background checks came during a Statehouse rally following mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, in which more than 30 people were killed.

Watkins said after his town hall meetings that he likes the idea of stronger background checks if it involves “different databases communicating better.”

As for gun control, Watkins said after the meeting, “There’s clearly no definitive solution.”

Watkins touched on a wide variety of issues during the meeting, including illegal immigration, veterans’ issues and a new trade agreement between the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Gun safety arose as an issue during a question-and-answer period when Danielle Twemlow, a local leader of the Moms Demand Action gun-control group, urged Watkins to support stronger background checks and a strong red flag law.

“Access to guns is really the issue,” she told Watkins.

She also pressed Watkins to explain his vote in April against a measure that passed the House to reauthorize a 25-year-old lawthat helps victims of domestic and sexual violence, the Violence Against Women Act. Another audience member gasped in disbelief.

Watkins replied that the measure had contained “poison pills,” prompting a few audience members to challenge him. Republican leaders have said Democrats politicized the measure by attaching gun control proposals designed to embarrass gun rights supporters.

Watkins did have supporters in the crowd. Mel Adams, a retired financial planner from Topeka and a Republican, acknowledged that he was skeptical of Watkins when he ran for office last year because Watkins didn’t have a record, but that, “He’s won me over.”

Adams said he could support a red flag law but worries that it would be written too broadly, so that guns could be removed from people who aren’t a danger to themselves or others.

SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a drive-by shooting and looking for suspects.

Just before 12:30 p.m. Monday, deputies were dispatched to the 7600 block of SW Urish Road for a disturbance, according to Sgt. Todd Stallbaumer.

The homeowner reported an unknown black, four door vehicle arrived at the residence with four or five armed individuals who were looking for an acquaintance of the homeowner.

The homeowner described the suspects as males, all in their twenties, wearing ski masks or handkerchiefs.

The homeowner told deputies that the suspects shot an unoccupied vehicle multiple times that was parked in the driveway of the residence.  The black vehicle then left the residence prior to deputies arriving.

Deputies were still processing the scene and interviewing witnesses late Monday afternoon, according to Stallbaumer.

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — A judge on Monday found Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiaries helped fuel the opioid crisis in Oklahoma and ordered the consumer products giant to pay $572 million to clean up the problem.

Cleveland County District Judge Thad Balkman’s ruling followed the first state opioid case to make it to trial and could help shape negotiations over roughly 1,500 similar lawsuits filed by state, local and tribal governments consolidated before a federal judge in Ohio.

“The opioid crisis has ravaged the state of Oklahoma,” Balkman said before announcing the verdict. “It must be abated immediately.”

The companies are expected to appeal the ruling to the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

Before Oklahoma’s trial began May 28, Oklahoma reached settlements with two other defendant groups — a $270 million deal with OxyContin-maker Purdue Pharma and an $85 million settlement with Israeli-owned Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.

Oklahoma argued the companies and their subsidiaries created a public nuisance by launching an aggressive and misleading marketing campaign that overstated how effective the drugs were for treating chronic pain and understated the risk of addiction. Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter says opioid overdoses killed 4,653 people in the state from 2007 to 2017.

Mike Hunter has called Johnson & Johnson a “kingpin” companythat was motivated by greed. He specifically pointed to two former Johnson & Johnson subsidiaries, Noramco and Tasmanian Alkaloids, which produced much of the raw opium used by other manufacturers to produce the drugs.

“They’ve been the principal origin for the active pharmaceutical ingredient in prescription opioids in the country for the last two decades,” Hunter said after the trial ended July 15. “It is one of the most important elements of causation with regard to why the defendants … are responsible for the epidemic in the country and in Oklahoma.”

Attorneys for the company have maintained they were part of a lawful and heavily regulated industry subject to strict federal oversight, including the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and the Food and Drug Administration, during every step of the supply chain. Lead attorney Larry Ottaway said during closing arguments that opioid drugs serve a critical health need — to address chronic pain that affects thousands of Oklahomans every day.

“This problem of untreated chronic pain afflicts people here in Oklahoma,” Ottaway said.

Oklahoma pursued the case under the state’s public nuisance statute and presented the judge with a plan to abate the crisis that would cost between $12.6 billion for 20 years and $17.5 billion over 30 years. Attorneys for Johnson & Johnson have said that estimate is wildly inflated.