BARTON COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Barton County are investigating a shooting.
Just before 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, officers from the Great Bend Police Department were dispatched to the 1200 block of 10th Street, in reference to a man who had been shot.
The caller advised that another party was driving the gunshot victim to the hospital.
Shortly thereafter, a man later identified as Austin Amos was dropped off at Great Bend Regional Hospital and ran inside exclaiming that he had been shot.
Amos suffered what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the back. He was treated and flown to Wesley Medical Center in Wichita.
Through the course of the investigation, officers came to believe that Dallas Mills, while inside a vehicle belonging to the victim had shot Amos.
As officers were searching for Mills and the vehicle, Barton County Dispatch received information from a citizen indicating that the vehicle had been abandoned near the intersection of 5th Street and Morphy Street.
Officers established a perimeter around the area and deployed Kia, one of the Great Bend Police patrol dogs.
Kia tracked a scent from the area of the truck to an abandoned house nearby. Officers noticed that the door to the house appeared to have been kicked in, so they announced that they would send in the dog to search the house if the person inside didn’t surrender.
At that point, Mills announced that he was in the house. Mills came out of the house and surrendered. He was taken into custody without any harm or incident.
Officers are still searching for the weapon used during this incident.
“Our greatest concern right now is finding this gun before a child happens upon it and gets hurt. We’d ask that the public be on the lookout for this weapon, which was probably thrown out of the vehicle somewhere on the way to the hospital. It would likely be in a ditch or near a roadway,” according to Great Bend Police Chief Cliff Couch.
The Department asks that anyone who might see the weapon contact Barton County Dispatch at 911 and not touch it.