WICHITA, KAN. – A Kansas man was charged in federal court Friday with robbing a local bank earlier this week, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.

Brent Allen Drees, 50, Wichita, is charged with one count of bank robbery. A criminal complaint and affidavit alleges that on Oct. 9 Drees robbed the Conway Bank at 121 E. Kellogg. Drees was wearing a baseball cap and jeans when he entered the bank and gave a teller a note saying, “Give me $3,000 and you won’t get hurt.”

On Thursday, investigators identified Drees as a suspect and arrested him.

Drees was released from Bureau of Prisons custody in July 2017 after serving a 46-month sentence for bank robbery.

The FBI Safe Streets Task Force investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lanny Welch is prosecuting.

SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities and USD 250 officials are investigating a teen student after an attack on a school resource officer.

On Wednesday, police arrested a 17-year-old female student who had returned to Heights High School, 5301 North Hillside in Wichita, despite having been suspended or expelled, according to officer Paul Cruz.

When the Heights’ school resource officer made contact with her, she attacked the officer.

According to Cruz the student bit the officer several times and he received cuts to his face. The officer was hospitalized “code yellow,” according to Cruz.  Has since been released from the hospital

This student has had similar incidents with the SRO and other staff members. The faces charges of battery of a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest.  She was taken to the Juvenile Detention center, according to Cruz.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Organizers of a small-town Kansas parade have told Republican Kris Kobach that he must remove a replica machine gun from the back of a Jeep that’s become a key part of his campaign for governor and emblematic of his support for gun rights.

An attorney for the organizing committee for Iola’s Farm City Days said it was in talks Friday with Kobach’s campaign to find a compromise. But Kobach said that he believes the organizers can’t prevent him from using the Jeep with the gun in the parade scheduled for Saturday without violating his free speech rights.

So, Kris Kobach was in the Old Shawnee Days Parade this am in a Jeep with what appears to be a machine gun attached???!!! #kssos #ksleg #ksed #KSleg pic.twitter.com/m8NNCW00nX

— Cindy For Kansas (@cindy4kansas) June 2, 2018

Kobach is here to gun down the illegals and libtards. This is America pic.twitter.com/ts4KGacarW

— Nash (@Nashults15) June 2, 2018

Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state, has been riding in the Jeep with the replica gun at least since June. Its appearance then in a suburban Kansas City parade prompted criticism, an apology from the sponsoring city and what Kobach derided as a “snowflake meltdown.” He quickly made it a symbol of his defiance of liberal criticism and his support for gun-ownership rights protected by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

But Daniel Schowengerdt, attorney for the Iola parade’s organizing committee, said its members felt the replica gun’s “wartime message” clashed with the event’s message of bringing farms and cities together. Iola, with about 5,700 residents, is about 100 miles (161 kilometers) southwest of Kansas City.

Schowengerdt said the organizers had no problem with the Jeep, which is decorated with U.S. flag designs and has a bobble-head of President Donald Trump on its hood — only with the replica machine gun. He said that under past U.S. Supreme Court decisions, private parade organizers have a right to choose the content of their events.

“They are pro-Second Amendment,” he said of the organizers. “This is not a leftist organization. In fact, the vast majority of the people on the committee are gun-owning Republicans.”

The entry form for the parade does not mention firearms or mounted guns but says parade organizers “reserve the right to refuse entry to any person, group or entity. It also bans semi-trucks and tells participants that they cannot throw candy or other items from a float or vehicle.

“They felt and feel that a mounted, replica, .50-caliber machine gun does not fit with their message,” Schowengerdt said. “The Jeep is free to be there.”

Virginia Crossland Macha, a local GOP activist who backs Kobach, said she was upset enough by the organizing committee’s decision that she resigned as its president; she was not present for its vote. She said Farm City Days is non-partisan and staffed by volunteers and has now been drawn into “a mess” that could hurt the event.

“I just find it kind of crazy,” she said.

Iola is the seat of Allen County, where registered Republicans outnumber Democrats by more than 2-to-1 and President Donald Trump received 67 percent of the vote in 2016. Kobach carried it in a crowded Republican primary in August with nearly 43 percent of the vote.

Schowengerdt said the decision was made in mid-September. Kobach said he learned of the decision about a week ago, some days after parade organizers told his staff of their decision. He said Iola is the first community to express any reluctance about the replica machine gun.

“In contrast, we’ve had mayors from other cities asking us to bring the gun,” Kobach said. “The Second Amendment applies as well in the city as it does in the country, and there is no conflict whatsoever between the joining of city and country and the Second Amendment.”

SALINE COUNTY —Two people were injured during an incident at a manufacturing plant Friday morning in Salina.

Just after 7a.m., fire crews responded to report of a fire in the mixing building at McShares,1835 E. North Street, according to Fire Marshal Troy Long.

When firefighters arrived, they found no fire, but the sprinkler system had been activated, Long said.

Two employees in the building were transported to Salina Regional Medical Center. One had minor injuries and the other had second-degree chemical burns on his neck and hands, according to Long.

Fire crews put water on the chemical to change the pH level so it would cause no further injuries.

The accident was blamed on equipment failure, Long said. McShares had not released a statement Friday afternoon.

The plant makes food additives and mixes vitamins and minerals that are added to wheat, rice and corn flours and cereals, according to their web site.

In June of 2017, homes and businesses within a half mile of the plant were evacuated as a precaution following a reported chemical leak. There were no injuries reported.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY — One person died in an accident just before 7:30a.m. Friday in Montgomery County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1993 Ford pickup driven by Jalen Kristopher Bush, 17, Coffeyville, was westbound on U.S. 166 one mile east of Caney. The pickup traveled left of center and struck a 2008 Toyota Camry driven by Linda M. Coots, 76, Caney, head-on.

An eastbound 2014 Chevy Malibu driven by Geraldine Wilson Jay, 81, Copan, OK., then struck the Ford pickup that was still in the roadway.

A 2006 Cadillac SRX driven by Gaige Ethan Beam, 17, Caney, made an evasive maneuver to avoid hitting the Chevy and collided with the Ford pickup and then struck a 2011 Honda Odyssey driven by Amanda Clair Wade, 37, Caney, that was stopped on the westbound shoulder.

A passenger in the Toyota Edgar E. Coots, 79, Caney, was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to the mortuary in Coffeyville. His wife Linda Coots was transported to the hospital in Coffeyville. Bush was airlifted to a hospital in Tulsa. Jay was transported to the hospital in Bartlesville.

Beam, Wade and two children in the Honda were not injured. All were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.