KANSAS CITY (AP) – Kansas City police have fatally shot a woman who barricaded herself in a shed for hours after she was seen outside with a sword.

The Kansas City Star reports that the shooting happened Thursday afternoon in the north of the city.

Police Capt. Lionel Colón says he doesn’t know if the woman was armed with the sword when she was killed. He also says he doesn’t know if the woman had exited the shed or was shot while still inside. Colón hasn’t responded to an Associated Press email asking if a sword has been located.

Colón says he’s “very confident it was a last-resort situation to ensure the safety of the public.” Robert King, who lives nearby, questioned why police didn’t use nonlethal force.

The woman’s name hasn’t been released.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans and Democrats put aside the sectarian hostilities that have increasingly defined this town and came together on the baseball diamond Thursday, a year after bullets from a would-be mass assassin shook Congress to its core.

Democrats prevailed 21-5 in the 57th Congressional Baseball Game for Charity at Nationals Park. Kansas representatives Roger Marshall and Kevin Yoder  played for the GOP.

But the night belonged to House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and all who hailed his return after he was shot during a team practice last spring in suburban Virginia.

From the floor to the field— Proud to call @SteveScalise a great friend and mentor. Now who’s ready to play some ball?!?! #congressionalbaseballgame pic.twitter.com/0oQSNoaY0V

— Dr. Roger Marshall (@RogerMarshallMD) June 14, 2018

The Louisiana Republican suffered life threatening injuries and has endured lengthy hospitalizations, multiple surgeries and painful rehabilitation. Months removed from struggling to walk, Scalise was honored before the game and started at second base for Republicans, fielding a ground ball and completing the put-out to first on the game’s first play.

“It’s been a long road to this day,” Scalise wrote on Twitter earlier in a day filled with media interviews, accolades and a Capitol Hill blood drive to commemorate the donations he received a year ago.

Scalise wore a Capitol Police cap to honor officers who worked the shooting last year, injuring gunman James Hodgkinson, who later died. Hodgkinson’s social media posts prior to the shooting suggest he targeted the Republican baseball team because of his political views.

Giving no mention to Hodgkinson, Scalise pronounced himself “grateful for the support and prayers” Thursday and added, “Let’s play some baseball.”

The House whip’s comeback was enough to leave Francis Kelly bursting with pride in the centerfield seats. “It’s just being an American — terror should not scare us,” the 41-year-old graphic designer said, sporting a necktie emblazoned with stars and stripes.

Still, the outpouring for Scalise obscured the daily realities of a capital city still bitterly divided on nearly every major policy debate, including how to regulate the weapons like those wielded on Scalise and his fellow Republicans a year ago in Alexandria, Virginia.

Scalise and other Republican team members said leading up to the game that he’s fine with where Congress is on gun laws, including after mass school shootings that have frequented headlines since last year’s near disaster.

There also were symbols of the so-called swamp that President Donald Trump and so many of the players have promised to drain. The game is a charity fundraiser, but the spectacle still involves private, guest-list parties, sponsored by corporate behemoths in the ballpark’s exclusive corners.

On the field, any victory Scalise celebrated had to come vicariously through his long friendship with fellow Louisiana congressman Cedric Richmond. The former collegiate baseball player again starred on the mound and at the plate for the Democratic team, including a three-run, inside-the-park homerun.

The 2018 midterms loomed, as well. Many of the young staffers filling the stands wore the campaign shirts of their bosses whose fates in November will determine whether Republicans maintain their House and Senate majorities.

And, in the year of the #metoo movement, when record numbers of female candidates are running for Congress, California Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragan, a Democrat, and Utah Rep. Mia Love, a Republican, reached base and patrolled second base alongside the men that still dominate a Congress that is about four-fifths male.

“I grew up playing Tee-Ball & Little League & in high school I petitioned the principal to let me play baseball with the boys,” Barragan wrote on Twitter before the game, punctuating her remarks with #YesSheCan.

The baseball matchup, first played in 1909, typically raises hundreds of thousands of dollars annually for Washington-area charities. Last year, the game raised $1.5 million.

WICHITA COUNTY — One person was injured in an accident just before 5:30p.m. Thursday in Wichita County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2013 Ford passenger vehicle driven by Angel Labra, 32, Scott City, was eastbound on Kansas 96 twelve miles west Scott City.

The vehicle was following a Salsa bicycle driven by John J. Egbers, 49, St. Cloud, Minnesota.   The Ford struck the bicycle. The bike and rider landed in the south ditch.

Egbers was transported to Wesley Medical Center.

Labra was not injured. She was properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.

GALENA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a rapper who fled from a southeast Kansas traffic stop and feuded with police on Facebook brought along doughnuts when he surrendered.

 

The feud started after two people bailed from a vehicle that a Galena officer attempted to stop Sunday for speeding. Police posted screenshots of Tyrone Amos’ Facebook page in which he described himself hiding in a bush afterward. The department also changed its profile picture to a bush.

After Amos surrendered Wednesday with doughnuts, the department again changed its profile picture to a selfie of an officer with a man in handcuffs.

Amos was booked into the county jail on a $1,500 bond. The post ended with “One of ya’ll need to go #FreeM3GAPHON3,” a reference to Amos’ rap name.

SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a burglary and have made an arrest.

At approximately 4:30 a.m. on Monday, police responded to a burglary call at Bingo Casino, 2431 East Mount Vernon in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson.

Upon arrival, Officers located damage to the front glass doors of the business.  An investigation revealed there were three unknown suspects. They arrived at the business in a 1990’s Chevy 2500 extended cab pickup truck, with black lower trim and black zebra stripes on the sides.

Two of the suspects entered the business by breaking the front glass doors, and put a tow cable around an ATM.  The truck then backed through the front doors and pulled the ATM through the front doors

The suspects then loaded the ATM onto the truck and fled.

On Wednesday, police arrested a 25-year-old man and a 53-year-old man in connection with the burglary, according to Davidson.

The case will be presented to the United States Attorney’s Office, according to Davidson.

 

WICHITA – A Kansas man was charged in federal court today with making a deal to buy two tiger pelts in violation of the federal Lacey Act, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.

Ret Thach, 38, Wichita, is charged with one count of violating the Lacey Act, which prohibits interstate sale or purchase of animals that are covered bythe Endangered Species Act.

In court documents, investigators allege Thach reached an agreement to pay $8,000 for two tiger pelts to be delivered to him in Wichita. Thach also agreed to pay traveling expenses for a seller from Wisconsin to drive to Wichita to deliver the pelts. Thach did not know that the seller was an agent of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service working undercover.

According to court records, the agent informed Thach that selling the pelts across state lines was “absolutely illegal.” Thach told the agent he already owned “a lion and a lot of bears” and wanted to go ahead with the deal to buy the tiger pelts. Thach said he wanted the pelts for his home office.

If convicted, Thach faces a penalty of up to five years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Treaster is prosecuting.