SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a reported child abduction and continue the search for two suspects.

Just before 4p.m. Wednesday, police responded to the 2100 block of S. Broadway for an abduction call. Officers contacted a 25-year-old woman at a convenience store who reported that her maroon Town and Country van was stolen from the parking lot, and that her three children were inside, according to Office Kevin Wheeler.

The children were two boys, ages 6 months and 18-months and a 2-year-old girl, according Captain Brent Allred.

Investigators determined the mother had turned off the van, left the keys in the vehicle as she went into the gas station convenience store, according to Allred.

One suspect later identified as 31-year-old Jason Barajas was a passenger in a silver SUV parked next to the van. He exited the SUV, got into the woman’s van and drove through the parking lot and then traveled northbound on Broadway. Officers located the stolen van in the 1500 Block of South Gold where Barajas had abandoned the van with children still inside. When police found the children, they were scared but unharmed, according to Allred. Police quickly reunited them with their parents.

On Wednesday night, detectives identified Barajas as a potential suspect and 55-year-old Wesley Coleman as the driver of the SUV they had been in at the convenience store, according to Allred.

Police arrested Barajas during a traffic stop at Kellogg and Tyler. He was in a stolen Suzuki Grand Vitara. He is being held on requested charges that include three counts of kidnapping, aggravated child endangerment, auto theft, possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia, transporting open container and an outstand warrant, according to Allred.

Coleman was identified with the help of the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s office and was arrested in a separate vehicle stop in the 6200 Block of West Kellogg. He was not arrested for any charges from the abduction. He was booked for driving on a suspended license and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Police will present the case to the Sedgwick County District attorney.

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SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a reported child abduction and continue the search for two suspects.

 

Just before 4p.m. Wednesday, police responded to the 2100 block of S. Broadway for an abduction call. Officers contacted a 25-year-old woman at a convenience store who reported that her maroon Town and Country van was stolen from the parking lot, and that her three children were inside, according to Office Kevin Wheeler.

Police located the vehicle in the 1500 block of S. Gold with the children still inside and unharmed.

Police continue the search for two persons of interest. The first individual is a white male, who was wearing a red shirt, dark shorts, and a white KU hat. The second individual is a white male, who was wearing a multi-colored shirt and dark shorts. The two were in a white SUV, that appears to be a Suburban.

Anyone with information on these individuals should call 911. They may also submit anonymous tips through Crime Stoppers by calling 316-267-2111.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The popular Country Stampede music festival will be moving from Manhattan to Topeka — and changing its name.

Topeka Mayor Michelle De La Isla made the announcement Thursday hours before the event kicked off in Topeka.

Country Stampede has been held at Tuttle Creek State Park in Manhattan for 23 years. It was moved to Heartland Motorsports Park for this year’s event because of flooding at Tuttle Creek.

Experts estimated the three-day event brought $8 million to the Manhattan economy. It annually draws more than 100,000 fans to hear some of the biggest country stars.

This year’s event features 50 country acts, including Clint Black, Jake Owen and Jason Aldean. It is scheduled to run Thursday through Saturday.
The festival will be called the Heartland Stampede in the future.

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TOPEKA – The Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism (KDWPT) and Country Stampede, LLC have mutually and amicably agreed to terminate the Special Event Permit Addendum dated March 26, 2018 under which the Country Stampede was to have been held at Tuttle Creek State Park this year, according to a media release from the KDWPT.

The 24th annual Kicker Country Stampede will be held from June 20-22 at Heartland Motorsports Park.

The confluence of two situations led to the decision, according to the release.

The unprecedented rainfall leading to flooding damage at Tuttle Creek State Park made it impossible to hold the concert at the scheduled time and the current economic outlook for music industry events combined with the high water event at Tuttle Creek impaired the financial viability of the Country Stampede operator

Under the termination agreement, KDWPT will refund the operator’s payment of $81,500.00 and the operator is no longer obligated to make any future payments.

KDWPT and Country Stampede, LLC have had a great relationship over the 23 years that Tuttle Creek State Park has hosted the event. Country Stampede has helped focus national and international attention on Kansas, the City of Manhattan and Tuttle Creek State Park which will have benefits for many years to come. We wish the operator well for the future.

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump declared Thursday that “Iran made a very big mistake” in shooting down a U.S. drone.

Iran made a very big mistake!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 20, 2019

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders says Trump was briefed Wednesday night and again Thursday morning about the incident. She says the administration also will keep in touch with lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

Trump made his comment on Twitter in midmorning.

American and Iranian officials are disputing the circumstances of the incident.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it shot down the drone over Iranian airspace. The U.S. military is calling the downing an “unprovoked attack” and said it occurred over international airspace in the Strait of Hormuz.
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TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s Revolutionary Guard shot down a U.S. drone on Thursday amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington over its collapsing nuclear deal with world powers, American and Iranian officials said, though they disputed the circumstances of the incident.

The Guard said it shot down the drone over Iranian airspace, while two U.S. officials told The Associated Press that the downing happened over international airspace in the Strait of Hormuz. The different accounts could not be immediately reconciled.

Previously, the U.S. military alleged that Iran had fired a missile at another drone last week that was responding to the attack on two oil tankers near the Gulf of Oman. The U.S. blames Iran for the attack on the ships; Tehran denies it was involved.

The attacks come against the backdrop of heightened tensions between the U.S. and Iran following President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from Tehran’s nuclear deal a year ago.

Separately, Saudi Arabia said on Thursday that Yemen’s Iranian-allied Houthi rebels launched a rocket targeting a desalination plant in the kingdom the previous night. The White House said Trump was briefed about that attack.

Iran has quadrupled its production of low-enriched uranium and threatened to boost its enrichment closer to weapons-grade levels, trying to pressure Europe for new terms to the 2015 nuclear deal.

In recent weeks, the U.S. has sped an aircraft carrier to the Mideast and deployed additional troops alongside the tens of thousands already in the region. From Yemen, the Houthis have launched bomb-laden drones into neighboring Saudi Arabia.

All this has raised fears that a miscalculation or further rise in tensions could push the U.S. and Iran into an open conflict, some 40 years after Tehran’s Islamic Revolution. Thursday’s drone incident marks the first direct Iranian-claimed attack on the U.S. amid the crisis.

“We do not have any intention for war with any country, but we are fully ready for war,” Revolutionary Guard commander Gen. Hossein Salami said in a televised address.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which answers only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said it shot down the drone on Thursday morning when it entered Iranian airspace near the Kouhmobarak district in southern Iran’s Hormozgan province. Kouhmobarak is some 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) southeast of Tehran and close to the Strait of Hormuz.

The Guard said it shot down the drone at 4:05 a.m. after it collected data from Iranian territory, including the southern port of Chahbahar near Iran’s border with Pakistan. Iran used its air defense system known as Third of Khordad to shoot down the drone — a truck-based missile system that can fire up to 18 miles (30 kilometers) into the sky, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency, citing the Guard, identified the drone as an RQ-4 Global Hawk. However, the U.S. Navy also flies a variant that looks similar, called the MQ-4C Triton.

The drones cost over $100 million apiece and can fly higher than 10 miles in altitude and stay in the air for over 24 hours at a time. They have a distinguishable hump-shaped front and an engine atop. Their wingspan is bigger than a Boeing 737 passenger jet.

The U.S. officials told the AP the Iranians fired a surface-to-air missile striking the American drone over the Strait of Hormuz, in international airspace. The strait is the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of all global oil moves.

The officials spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity as the information had yet to be cleared for release to the public. They did not elaborate on the type of drone shot down, nor the mission it was conducting. However, the U.S. has been worried about international shipping through the Strait of Hormuz since the limpet mine attacks in May and June.

Salami, speaking to a crowd in the western city of Sanandaj, described the American drone as “violating our national security border.”

“Borders are our red line,” Salami said. “Any enemy that violates the borders will be annihilated.”

Iran’s Foreign Ministry separately protested the drone, saying it entered Iranian territory.

Iran has claimed to have shot down American drones in the past. In the most-famous incident, in December 2011, Iran seized an RQ-170 Sentinel flown by the CIA to monitor Iranian nuclear sites after it entered Iranian airspace from neighboring Afghanistan. The Iranians later reverse-engineered the drone to create their own variants.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia said Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired a rocket a desalination plant in al-Shuqaiq, a city in the kingdom’s Jizan province. The state-run Saudi Press Agency quoted military spokesman Col. Turki al-Maliki as saying the attack caused no damage and wounded no one. The Yemeni rebel Al-Masirah satellite news channel earlier said the Houthis targeted a power plant in Jizan, near the kingdom’s border with Yemen, with a cruise missile.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Trump had been “briefed on the reports of a missile strike in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”

“We are closely monitoring the situation and continuing to consult with our partners and allies,” Sanders said. It wasn’t immediately clear why Trump would be briefed about an attack that caused no damage or casualties.

A Saudi-led coalition has been battling the Houthis since March 2015 in Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest nation now pushed to the brink of famine by the conflict. In recent weeks, the Houthis have launched a new campaign sending missiles and bomb-laden drones into Saudi Arabia.

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