SEDGWICK COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating after a man alone in an apartment firing a gun was killed by police.

Just before 2a.m. Thursday, police responded to report of an explosion at an apartment complex in south Wichita, according to Police Chief Gordon Ramsay. 

Officers at the scene heard gunfire and worked to determine where the gunfire was in the complex. An individual was inside an apartment shooting and continuing to shoot, according to Ramsay. Officers began to evacuate nearby apartments and called in the SWAT team. Despite attempts, police were not able to make phone contact with the shooter, according to Ramsay.  

Just before 6 a.m.two officers fired multiple shots and killed the suspect.

The suspect had multiple guns, at least a rifle and a handgun. About 30 gunshots were reported altogether. An armored police vehicle was struck four times, according to Ramsay.

Police reported no other injuries.

Press release from the City of Great Bend…

It is with great sadness that the Great Bend Brit Spaugh Zoo announces the passing of our beloved African Leopard, Banera. Just two days short of her 19^th birthday, Banera was humanely euthanized today after animal care staff and veterinarians had determined that her quality of life had deteriorated to a point that we could no longer keep her comfortable.

For the past 6 years Banera has been treated for severe arthritis. In recent years her arthritis has gotten so bad that sedation was required twice a year to trim her nails because she was unable to scratch them to wear them down. A necropsy has been performed and results are pending.

Banera moved to the zoo at just 10 days old in June of 2000. Dr. Malone advised against acquisition at that time because the facility she was born at housed animals in horrible living conditions. Dr. Malone said, “It is a true testament to the care given to our animals here, that animal can have such poor genetics, but still live so long.”

Due to being hand raised, Banera has always enjoyed human comfort, making her a staff favorite. Zoo Supervisor/Curator Sara Hamlin said, “Whenever I had a bad day, I would get out of the office and pay a visit to Banera. She would always come down off of whatever bench she was napping on and greet me with excited meows. I feel incredibly lucky to have had the privilege to care for her.”

African leopards live up to 12 years in the wild and up to 21 years in managed care. Most leopards have tawny-colored fur with black rosettes, like Toby, but some are completely black, like Banera, which is called melanistic coloration. But this doesn’t make them a black panther, there is no such animal. “Panther” is just an old term that comes from the genus name, Panthera, and is sometimes used to describe leopards, jaguars and cougars.

The zoo’s other leopard, Toby, will remain on exhibit to be an ambassador for his species. For more information please contact Sara Hamlin, Zoo Supervisor/Curator at (620)793-4226.

SEDGWICK COUNTY —A Kansas man was sentenced to prison Wednesday a shooting death over two years ago.

Judge Stephen Ternes ordered Jimmy Suttle Jr., 33,  Wichita, to serve 288 months in prison, according to District Attorney Marc Bennett.

In May 2017, 52-year-old Leonard Childers of Wichita was shot outside a Wichita home. The shooting was the result of harsh words between Childers and Jimmy Suttle Sr.

Childers told the elder Suttle to get off his lawn. Witnesses say Suttle responded with a derogatory slur. Childers and Suttle then argued further. A short time later, Suttle Jr. approached Childers with a gun and fired twice. One bullet struck Childers in the abdomen.

Suttle Jr. pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter on Feb. 1. On Wednesday, Judge Ternes sentenced him to 165 months. With the shooting, Suttle violated his probation on a 2013 forgery case, a 2015 methamphetamine possession case, and a 2015 aggravated battery case. The underlying sentences on those cases along with the voluntary manslaughter conviction resulted in the 288 month term.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A tornado caused heavy damage in Missouri’s capital city as severe weather swept across the state overnight, causing at least three deaths and injuring nearly two dozen people as homes and businesses were ripped apart.

@MSHPTrooperF is in Jefferson City assisting @JeffCityPolice and Cole County Sheriff Dept. after tonight’s tornado. If you are NOT affected, please avoid the area. You will see several power lines down in these pictures. Treat them as though they are live. #MoWx pic.twitter.com/JHyNNfDX8F

— MSHP Troop F (@MSHPTrooperF) May 23, 2019

The National Weather Service confirmed that the large and destructive tornado moved over Jefferson City shortly before midnight on Wednesday.

“Across the state, Missouri’s first responders once again responded quickly and with strong coordination as much of the state dealt with extremely dangerous conditions that left people injured, trapped in homes, and tragically led to the death of three people,” Governor Mike Parson said.

Missouri Public Safety said the three were killed in the Golden City area of Barton County, near Missouri’s southwest corner, as the severe weather moved in from Oklahoma, where rescuers struggled to pull people from high water. The tornado hit during a week that has seen several days of tornadoes and torrential rains in parts of the Southern Plains and Midwest.

No deaths were reported in the capital, but Jefferson City Police Lt. David Williams said about 20 people were rescued by emergency personnel.

The weather service reported that a “confirmed large and destructive tornado” was observed over Jefferson City at 11:43 p.m. Wednesday, moving northeast at 40 mph (64 kph). The capital city has a population of about 40,000 and is located about 130 miles (209 kilometers) west of St. Louis.

“It’s a chaotic situation right now,” Williams said.

Williams spoke from the Cole County Sheriff’s office, where debris including insulation, roofing shingles and metal pieces lay on the ground outside the front doors. Authorities were discouraging people from beginning clean-up efforts until power is safely restored. Area hospitals set up command centers in case the need arises.

Missouri Public Safety tweeted that there was a possibility of more tornadoes and flash flooding.

Austin Thomson, 25, was in the laundry room of his complex of two-story apartment buildings to do his wash and noticed the wind started picking up. He saw sheets of rain coming down and a flagpole bend and then slam to the ground. The windows broke and he dove behind the washers and dryers.

After it calmed down, he walked outside to check the damage, and retrieved a stuffed animal for his daughter from his damaged apartment.

“There’s basically one building that’s basically one story now,” he said.

The National Weather Service said it had received 22 reports of tornadoes by late Wednesday, although some of those could be duplicate reporting of the same twister.

One tornado skirted just a few miles north of Joplin, Missouri, on the eighth anniversary of a catastrophic tornado that killed 161 people in the city. The tornado caused some damage in the town of Carl Junction, about 4 miles (6.44 kilometers) north of the Joplin airport, where several injuries were reported.

Storms and torrential rains have ravaged the Midwest, from Texas through Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri and Illinois.

Two barges broke loose and floated swiftly down the swollen Arkansas River in eastern Oklahoma on Wednesday, spreading alarm downstream as they threatened to hit a dam.

Authorities urged residents of several small towns in Oklahoma and Kansas to leave their homes as rivers and streams rose.

The Arkansas River town of Webbers Falls, Oklahoma, was one such town. Town officials ordered a mandatory evacuation Wednesday afternoon because of the river’s rising level.

But Wednesday evening, a posting on the town’s official Facebook page sounded the alarm about the runaway barges for its 600 residents: “Evacuate Webbers Falls immediately. The barges are loose and has the potential to hit the lock and dam 16. If the dam breaks, it will be catastrophic!! Leave now!!”

There was no word by midnight Wednesday where the barges were on the river, but local television stations showing live video of the river and the lock and dam said they had not yet arrived.

The Arkansas River was approaching historic highs, while the already high Missouri and Mississippi Rivers were again rising after a multi-day stretch of storms that produced dozens of tornadoes. Forecasters predicted parts of Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas could see more severe weather on Thursday.

Deaths from this week’s storms include a 74-year-old woman found early Wednesday morning in Iowa. Officials there say she was killed by a possible tornado that damaged a farmstead in Adair County. Missouri authorities said heavy rain was a contributing factor in the deaths of two people in a traffic accident Tuesday near Springfield.

A fourth weather-related death may have occurred in Oklahoma, where the Highway Patrol said a woman apparently drowned after driving around a barricade Tuesday near Perkins, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) northeast of Oklahoma City. The unidentified woman’s body was sent to the state medical examiner’s office to confirm the cause of death. Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management spokeswoman Keli Cain said she isn’t yet listed as what would be the state’s first storm-related death.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Fourteen public safety officers were awarded the Medal of Valor by President Donald Trump on Wednesday, including eight who responded to a shooting at a southern California polling place.

“Every officer, firefighter and first responder who receives this award embodies the highest ideals of service and sacrifice, character and courage,” Trump said during a White House ceremony.

Watch LIVE: President Trump Presents the Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor https://t.co/tPqXH9Bgcp

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 22, 2019

The medal is the nation’s highest honor for bravery by a public safety officer.

Eight men from the Azusa, California, police department were honored for placing themselves in danger and saving the lives of civilians and fellow officers during the shooting on Election Day 2016. The recipients were: Retired Lt. Xavier Torres; Sgt. Seth Chapman; retired Sgt. Terry Smith Jr.; Sgt. Thomas Avila III; Sgt. Rocky Wenrick; Cpl. Andrew Rodriguez Sr.; senior officer Carlos Plascencia; and detective Manuel Campos.

When they arrived at the polling place, a person was shooting from a house across the street from a park. An elderly woman had been killed and a man lay wounded on a sidewalk. Two vehicles had collided and a woman in one of the cars was critically injured. The shooter was eventually killed and the officers were credited for preventing other deaths and injuries.

The other recipients were:

—Fire Capt. Dustin Moore and firefighter and paramedic Andrew Freisner of the fire department in Lenexa, Kansas, risked their lives to rescue a family from inside a burning apartment building on April 24, 2017. They climbed a ladder to the second floor, went inside and rescued an unconscious adult, two young children and the family dog.

—Ohio State University police officer Alan Horujko, who risked his life on Nov. 28, 2016, to save the lives of civilians. A driver had driven down a sidewalk and struck several pedestrians, and then got out of his car and began attacking people with a knife. Horujko killed the attacker after trying unsuccessfully to get him to disarm. Thirteen people were attacked and 11 were hospitalized, one in critical condition.

—Nicholas Cederberg, senior trooper with the Oregon State Police, who suffered life-threatening injuries while helping apprehend a man wanted for shooting his estranged wife eight times. The attacker rammed the patrol car and shot Cederberg in the right hip. As he lay on the ground, Cederberg was shot 12 more times. Five bullets were stopped by his armored vest, but seven penetrated his body. Cederberg underwent surgeries to repair a collapsed lung and two broken arms.

Two awards also were given to the families of fallen officers:

—Sgt. Verdell Smith Sr. of the Memphis, Tennessee, police department was clearing an intersection of pedestrians on June 4, 2016, when he was struck by a vehicle driven by a suspect in a triple shooting.

—Officer Brent Thompson of the Dallas, Texas, Area Rapid Transit Police Department was killed on July 7, 2016, during a shootout with a man who had just killed three Dallas police officers and wounded three others with an assault rifle. Thompson’s actions created a distraction that allowed others to aid the wounded and gave cover to officers so they could force the attacker inside a building where he was killed by the Dallas Police SWAT team

MANHATTAN — Thomas Lane, a highly experienced student affairs administrator, will become Kansas State University’s new vice president for student life and dean of students.

Kansas State University President Richard Myers announced the appointment of Lane, who currently serves as associate vice president for student affairs and dean of students at Missouri State University. His appointment follows a national search to replace Pat Bosco, who is retiring after nearly 50 years of service in student life administration at the university.

Lane will join Kansas State University on July 14 and brings more than25 years of experience in student life administration to his new job.

“We are excited to have found someone of Dr. Lane’s caliber for this vital position at K-State,” Myers said. “His broad experience in student life administration will serve him well as the top advocate for Kansas State University students while he plays a key role in ensuring and enriching their development and success.”

Lane will provide executive-level leadership, strategic planning, oversight and coordination of all units in the Division of Student Life, which include the Office of Student Life, Housing and Dining Services, Recreational Services, K-State Student Union, Career Center, Lafene Health Center, Counseling Services, Academic Achievement Center and many other key services and programs essential to student success. He also will provide leadership for the development and implementation of high-quality and student-centered approaches to support student success in nonacademic dimensions of student university experiences, and he will respond to student crises and issues and concerns, among many other duties.

“I am truly humbled and excited to be joining the K-State family,” Lane said. “During my time on campus, it was clear to me the university is deeply committed to students’ personal and academic success. I am greatly looking forward to working with students, faculty, staff, administration and alumni in ensuring a Wildcat student experience that is welcoming, inclusive and changes lives for the better.”

Lane has been in his current position at Missouri State University since June 2015. He joined the university in 2005, serving as assistant dean of students and director of the student union. He was promoted to assistant to the vice president for student affairs in 2008 and became the assistant vice president for student affairs in 2011, serving until his appointment as associate vice president for student affairs. Before joining Missouri State, Lane served as associate director of the student union and activities at Minnesota State University Moorhead, where he initially was assistant director of operations. He also has been a coordinator with Visitor and Information Services at Illinois State University.

Lane earned a bachelor’s degree in communications in 1991 and a master’s degree in educational administration in 1995, both from Illinois State University. He earned a doctorate in educational leadership and analysis in 2010 from the University of Missouri, where he serves as an adjunct assistant professor in the educational leadership cooperative doctoral program.

SEDGWICK COUNTY— Law enforcement authorities are investigating an aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and have a suspect in custody.

Just after 2p.m. Tuesday, police responded to a call of shots fired in the 800 block of South Terrance in Wichita, according to officer Kevin Wheeler.

At the scene, officers found the home had been struck multiple times by gunfire.  A 20-year-old woman and an 18-year-old man inside the residence told police someone shot at the residence but they were not injured. Officers did determine that the woman had been wounded in the abdomen.

She was transported to a local hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries, according to Wheeler.

Witnesses described the suspect and police located 23-year-old Tristyn Cowling. They arrested him without incident. Investigators learned that the disturbance at the home was not random and probably drug related, according to Wheeler.

Cowling is being held in the Sedgwick County Jail on requested charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and criminal discharge of a firearm into an occupied dwelling.

SALINA, Kan. (AP) — A 41-year-old Salina man has been found not guilty of animal abuse charges stemming from the seizure of 189 animals.

A Saline County jury deliberated less than an hour after a five-day trial of Matthew Fullen before returning the verdict Tuesday.

The animals were seized in April 2018 from a pasture in Assaria.

Investigators alleged the cows, horses, bulls, dogs, cats and rabbits were neglected or starving.

Fullen and his mother, Beverly Fullen, were initially arrested 165 misdemeanor counts and four felony counts of cruelty to animals.

Matthew Fullen was tried on five counts of animal abuse.

Beverly Fullen’s trial is scheduled for June 17.

MCPHERSON— Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Kansas felon who was believed to driving a stolen vehicle from Wichita.

On Tuesday, a McPherson County deputy attempted to stop the vehicle with two men inside on a seat belt violation in the parking lot of the 24/7 Travel Store in the 2200 Block of Kansas Avenue in McPherson, according to a media release.

The driver, later identified as 38-year-old Michael Huffman, refused to stop which lead to a chase through parts of McPherson, ending in the 400 block of Hartup.

Once stopped, the two occupants ran from the vehicle. Deputies located and arrested Michael Huffman.  The passenger remains at large.

Huffman has previous convictions for theft, burglary and drugs, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections. He is being held on requested charges for possession of stolen property, aggravated assault of a law enforcement officer, flee or attempt to elude, theft, interference with law enforcement, marijuana possession and two warrants for failure to appear.

Two schools were temporarily placed on lockdown due to safety concerns.

TOPEKA —The National Weather Service survey crews have completed their work reviewing tornadoes from Tuesday.

The first tornado reported occurred at 4:32p.m. in Dickinson County and was rated and EF1, according to the National Weather Service.  The tornado produced peak winds of 105 miles per hour and traveled over 7 miles.

The second intermittent tornado in Dickinson and Geary Counties that passed northwest of Junction City has been rated EF0. It was estimated 150 yards wide and traveled approximately 17 miles, according to the National Weather Service.

Just after 7p.m., an EF1 tornado was reported southwest of Oneida in Nemaha County. It traveled approximately 3 miles, according to the National Weather Service.

An EF3 tornado also was reported in Nemaha County at 7:20p.m. It had maximum winds of 140 miles per hour and traveled almost 6 miles.

The National Weather Service also reported an EF2 tornado in Jackson County just after 6:30p.m. Tuesday along with an EF0 tornado north of Topeka that is responsible for tree and power line damage.

Hutch Post

CHENEY, Kan. — The Bureau of Land Management has opened the flood gates at Cheney Reservoir as the lake rose to a near record level of 1,430 feet above sea level. With that, the gates were opened slightly around 6 a.m. Plans are to increase the outflow over the rest of the day Wednesday.

Sedgwick County says release water will flow first along the 15 miles of the North Fork of the Ninnescah River from below the dam “to the confluence with the South Fork,” according to a news release from the county. That area is quickly flooding from the release and will continue to do so.

The Army Corps of Engineers determined Tuesday afternoon that the gates would stay closed, but when the lake quickly rose above the flood pool, the Bureau of Land Management took authority over the lake and made the decision to open the gates. Officials are warning people downstream from Cheney that flooding is likely and residents in flood-prone areas should take precautions.

As of 9 a.m., the lake level was at 1,429.8 feet with a spillway release of about 1,280 cubic feet per second. The lake is still taking in about 9,000 cubic feet per second from runoff and the Ninnescah River.

By DAN MARGOLIES
Kansas News Service

A day after Kansas notified Planned Parenthood in May 2016 that it would cut off its participation in Medicaid, the nonprofit group sued to block the move.

So Kansas hired three high-powered East Coast law firms to defend it in a case that would slog on for nearly three years before Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s administration agreed to drop the termination effort in April.

The state’s legal defense cost taxpayers at least $899,000, according to records obtained by KCUR through the Kansas Open Records Act.

One of the law firms retained by Kansas — Washington, D.C.,-based Consovoy McCarthy Park — represents President Donald Trump in a lawsuit seeking to block his accounting firm from complying with a congressional subpoena of Trump’s financial records. (A federal judge on Monday ruled that the accounting firm must comply with the subpoena.)

A boutique firm boasting several former U.S. Supreme Court law clerks, Consovoy McCarthy billed more than $396,000 for its work on the Medicaid termination case from August 2016 through August 2018, invoices from the firm show.

One of the biggest law firms in the world, Norton Rose Fulbright, billed Kansas more than $471,000 for work it performed during the same two-year span.

And a third firm specializing in litigation, Cooper & Kirk, billed nearly $31,000 for a month’s worth of work in June 2016. (The firm had initially billed $61,910, but a note on the invoice states it was “renegotiated per Governor’s office 12/22/16.”)

The law firms commanded billing rates ranging from $492 per hour to $750 an hour. Those compare with average billing rates for Kansas law firms of $244 an hour, according to a 2017 survey by the Kansas Bar Association.

Law firm invoices typically provide detailed descriptions of the services they rendered. However, those portions of the invoices were blacked out in the copies obtained by KCUR. So it’s unclear what work the firms performed for the money.

Katelyn Radloff, an attorney with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, the defendant in the case, told KCUR in an email that the redacted portions fell under the attorney-client privilege exception to the Kansas Open Records Act.

Ordinarily, the state attorney general’s office defends Kansas in suits brought against it or its agencies. But occasionally — and especially in matters involving complex litigation — the state hires outside counsel to represent it.

A spokesman for Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt did not respond to questions about why the state chose to hire outside counsel in this case rather than have the attorney general’s office defend the case.

Ashley All, a spokeswoman for Kelly, made clear in an email that the newly elected governor regarded the case as a waste.

“Multiple courts ruled against the previous administration’s effort to remove Planned Parenthood as a KanCare provider,” All said. “To continue with this costly litigation would be unwise and out of step with the priorities of Kansas. Governor Kelly is focused on expanding healthcare options to women, not limiting them.”

It’s not clear how many patients would have been affected, or how much money Planned Parenthood would have lost, had Kanas succeeded in its effort to cut off its Medicaid funding. But a similar — and so far successful — effort by the state of Missouri has affected several thousand Planned Parenthood patients.

Video release

Kansas was originally represented in the case by Stephen R. McAllister, a former University of Kansas Law School dean who served as Kansas solicitor general for more than a decade before becoming U.S. Attorney for Kansas in 2018.

McAllister, however, withdrew from the case without explanation less than two weeks after the suit was filed by Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri (now Planned Parenthood Great Plains) and Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region, which had a handful of patients in Kansas.

Kansas was one of several Republican-controlled states that tried to defund Planned Parenthood after a video released in late 2015 by an anti-abortion group purported to show the organization sold fetal tissue for profit. Subsequent investigations discredited the highly edited video, which, in any case, concerned only the national Planned Parenthood organization, not its Kansas affiliate.

But in his State of the State address in January 2016, Brownback accused Planned Parenthood of trafficking in “baby body parts” and vowed to defund Planned Parenthood. The state made good on his threat on May 3, 2016, when the Kansas Department of Health and Environment notified Planned Parenthood that it was terminating its  Medicaid contract.

Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri and Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region sued the next day. At every stage of the case, the state lost.

In July 2016, U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson granted Planned Parenthood’s request for a preliminary injunction, ruling that the move likely violated federal law.

After Kansas appealed, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in February 2018 ruled that states may not cut off health care providers from Medicaid “for any reason they see fit, especially when that reason is unrelated to the provider’s competence and the quality of the healthcare it provides.”

Kansas then asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case, but the court in December declined, turning away both the Kansas case and a similar case appealed by Louisiana.

The high court’s decision to stay out of the issue let stand decisions by five federal appeals courts that have ruled in favor of Planned Parenthood and one federal appeals court that has ruled against it.

While Planned Parenthood Great Plains, which operates health centers in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma, never lost its Kansas Medicaid funding, the story is different in Missouri.

A year ago, that state suspended Medicaid reimbursement payments to the organization’s affiliates in Missouri, saying the suspension was required by a provision in the 2018 state budget cutting off funds for abortion providers and counselors.

The move affected about 7,000 Medicaid patients who relied on Planned Parenthood’s 11 Missouri clinics for health services, including cancer screenings, testing for sexually transmitted infections and birth control.

Although federal law already barred the use of Medicaid funds for abortions, Missouri cut off funding for all of Planned Parenthood’s services.

Kate Maxcy, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood Great Plains, said that while the affiliates technically remained in the Medicaid program, they haven’t been reimbursed for services for nearly a year.

Dan Margolies is a senior reporter and editor in conjunction with the Kansas News Service. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies

TOPEKA, KAN. – A Kansas man pleaded guilty Tuesday to cyberstalking and distributing child pornography, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.

Blake Adam Austin, 35, Topeka, Kan., pleaded guilty to one count of cyberstalking, one count of possessing child pornography and one count of distributing child pornography.

The investigation began when a middle school teacher in Topeka reported receiving emails from males who wanted to meet her. The males were responding to a Craigslist ad in which someone used the victim’s identity to post sexual content. The problem continued for years until an investigator identified an account Austin was using to post sexual content along with the victim’s contact information.

The victim recognized Austin as someone she had worked with at a coffee shop. He had attempted to initiate a relationship but she had not been interested.

Investigators learned Austin used images of an adult porn star and the victim’s contact information to post ads. He also used images of the victim and her contact information to place half a dozen ads on Craigslist.

On Austin’s laptop, investigators found images of him having sex with a 17-year-old girl. Investigators also learned that Austin uploaded sexually explicit photos of a girl under 15 years old on Skype.

Sentencing is set for Aug. 20. He faces a penalty of up to five years in federal prison on the cyberstalking charge, up to 10 years on the possession charge and not less than five years on the distribution charge. McAllister commended the Topeka Police Department, the FBI and Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine Kenney for their work on the case.