During the initial investigation, detectives discovered 33-year-old Randy Gile shot his wife 33-year-old Kristen Gile and then shot himself.
Just before 5:30 p.m., Saturday, the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office was dispatched to assist the Derby Police Department with a shooting near K15 and Patriot, according to Sedgwick County Deputy Tim Myers. Derby Police Officers found 3 vehicles at approximately 10100 E. 63rd Street South. Kristen Gile and Randy Gile were found deceased at the scene. Kristen Gile’s father Richard Floria, 55, received minor injuries during the shooting.
A GoFundMe page established by the family provides more details.
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SEDGWICK COUNTY— Authorities are investigating after a man and woman were found shot to death in southern Kansas.
Kristen Florio-Gile -photo GoFundMe
The shooting happened around 5:20 p.m. Saturday in Derby. Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Cpt. Brad Hoch says authorities think the man and woman identified by family as Kristin Florio-Gile were related.
Hoch didn’t say what led to the shooting. A GoFundMe page established by the family provides more details.
The man and Florio-Gile were in separate vehicles before the shooting.
Hoch says the man and woman seem to be the only two people involved and that there are no suspects.
BOLIVAR, Mo. (AP) — A replica World War I era biplane crashed and overturned on landing at an airport in southwest Missouri, leaving the 67-year-old pilot trapped but unhurt.
The crash happened Sunday evening at the Bolivar Municipal Airport, about 40 miles north of Springfield.
Police said in a news release that the pilot from St. Charles said the tail of the aircraft slid out upon landing, causing the aircraft to veer off the runway. The release says the plane overturned in a ditch on the east side of the runway.
According to the Flight Safety Foundation , a nonprofit that aims to improve and promote aviation safety, the aircraft was a replica Sopwith Camel, a British WWI single-seat fighter aircraft.
RILEY COUNTY— Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect on child sex crime allegations.
Just after 7:30p.m. Sunday police arrested Ronald Mark Lichtenhan, 61, Manhattan, according to the Riley County Police Department booking report.
Lichtenhan is being held on a $1,000,000.00 bond on requested charges that include 4 counts of Aggravated Indecent Liberties with a child under the age of 14 and Aggravated Criminal Sodomy of a child under 14.
Police released no additional details early Monday.
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — Authorities are searching for a vehicle whose driver left the scene of a double fatal crash in suburban Kansas City.
Suspect vehicle photo courtesy Overland Park Police
The crash happened Saturday afternoon in Overland Park. Police are seeking a dark blue or dark gray Honda that may have struck the side of a car that then veered across the center line. The car then crashed into another vehicle, killing both drivers.
Fatal Saturday crash scene-photo courtesy KCTV
Rockhurst High School identified one of the victims as senior Matthew Bloskey, saying in a statement that the school’s community is “devastated.” And family identified the other victim as 20-year-old Samuel Siebuhr, of Kansas City, Kansas.
Fresh off a victory that cemented his latest, controversial, pick for the nation’s high court, President Donald Trump came to Kansas Saturday night hoping to transfer his popularity in the state to two fellow Republicans.
Supporters lined up early in a chilly rain to see President Donald Trump at a Topeka rally on Saturday. NOMIN UJIYEDIIN / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
Trump arrived just hours after Brett Kavanaugh was sworn in as a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court — the most controversial appointment to the court in generations. He was in regular rally form, playing to an adoring crowd of some 10,000 thrilled supporters at the Kansas Expocentre in Topeka.
He peppered his speech with the usual condemnation of Democrats, dismissal of media for cranking out critical coverage he sees as “fake news,” and talk of the political victories that have marked his first year and a half as president.
Trump trounced Hillary Clinton in Kansas two years ago. On Saturday, he championed the campaigns of two candidates locked in far tighter races.
Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach finds himself in a dead heat with Democratic state Sen. Laura Kelly. Political newcomer Steve Watkins is struggling to keep an eastern Kansas congressional seat in Republican hands, a job made all the harder after reporting showed he exaggerated key parts of his biography.
Kobach and Trump have been kindred souls from the start. Both have shared often-unsubstantiated claims about crime waves by people immigrating to the U.S. illegally. They’ve both also trafficked in debunked theories about those immigrants voting illegally by the millions.
When Trump launched a commission last year aimed at exposing what he contended was widespread vote cheating in the 2016 election, he turned to Kobach as his key adviser on the issue. That panel dissolved prematurely without any findings.
On Saturday night, Trump lauded Kobach. He portrayed Kelly as someone unconcerned about illegal immigration and eager to lavish those who come to the country illicitly with welfare benefits.
“(Kobach) is a tireless champion for border security,” the president told the crowd. “He’ll protect your family. … Laura Kelly … supports giving welfare benefits to the illegal aliens.”
Earlier, Kobach had taken the stage and repeated a line he’s used repeatedly in the campaign in praise of Republican-authored federal tax cuts.
The president’s visit to Topeka drew supporters for him — and other Republicans.
CREDIT NOMIN UJIYEDIIN / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
“I want to do for Kansas, what President Trump has done for America,” he said.
That prompted the crowd to chant: “Kobach! Kobach! Kobach! …”
He also hit on themes that have come to define his political career — an aggressive stance toward immigration that paints immigrants as an existential threat to the country’s well-being.
“I’m so glad that America gets it and knows that illegal means illegal,” he said to cheers. “It’s time to put Kansans first, not illegal aliens.”
He touted a law he pushed through the Kansas Legislature requiring voters to produce proof of citizenship to register.
“It’s time,” he said, “for other states to care about proof of citizenship, too, just like Kansas.”
Kobach did not note that a federal court rejected the law, and he was held in contempt for failing to follow court orders on the issue.
The president used the Watkins race to warn the Republican audience that if GOP candidates such as Watkins lost, Congress would be lost to Democrats’ “radical agenda … a socialist takeover of healthcare.”
Watkins once again reminded the audience of his military record — graduating from West Point and deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. He did not bring up the issues that have gotten him into trouble — claims he built a large business that wasn’t hisand supposed heroics after a Nepal earthquake that his companions have said simply weren’t possible.
Instead, he gloried in the moment of sharing a stage with Trump.
“Kansans can do anything. I’m proof of that. I grew up a few miles away, and here I am standing up next to the leader of the free world,” Watkins told the crowd.
In his time in war zones, he said, “I have seen the devil. But I have also seen fighters. Donald Trump is a fighter.”
Much of the rest of Trump’s speech was a combination of throw-out-the-bums lines he’s been using since his presidential campaign began in 2015. (“This is your time to choose … whether we turn backward to the failure and frustration of the past or continue to an American greatness of the future.”)
Saul Cervantes was among the protesters who gathered outside the Topeka arena where the president spoke.
CREDIT NOMIN UJIYEDIIN / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
He also took credit for a booming economy that’s produced record-low unemployment rates and a bullish stock market, for dumping a nuclear arms deal with Iran, and for recrafting the NAFTA trade deal with Canada and Mexico.
“The only reason to vote Democrat,” he said, “is if you’re getting tired of winning.”
It was just the sort of stick-it-to-’em rhetoric the crowd was eager to hear. Hundreds began lining up on a chilly morning outside the hall where Trump would come in the evening. Many were drawn by the success he represents to them.
“He’s not one who’s going to be swayed by political money,” said Nathalie Higerd of Gem, Kansas. “And he’s working to improve our economy.”
Trump had many good things to say about his presidency, much of which partisans would challenge. But they’d be hard-pressed to deny he already has a legacy on the federal bench. Within hours of his Topeka speech, he added another monumental win when the Senate voted to approve Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court and the new justice was sworn in.
Yet that choice split the country, partly because Kavanaugh is so conservative. It also marked a loss for the #MeToo movement that’s risen in the last year in response to celebrated cases of powerful men assaulting and harassing women.
A high school acquaintance of Kavanaugh’s, Christine Blasey Ford, testified to the U.S. Senate that she was “100 percent” certain the future judge had tried to rape her at a teen drinking party decades before.
The Republican majority in the Senate ultimately chose to believe Kavanaugh’s angry denials. A week ago, Trump had mocked Ford. On Saturday, he criticized Democrats for delaying the appointment and challenging Kavanugh’s version of events.
“He’s, like, a perfect person. … The finest legal mind, one of the finest human beings,” Trump said. “That extra week was a great thing because it showed no corroboration (of Ford’s account). … His family … what they had to take was disgraceful.”
SHAWNEE COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities investigating a Kansas felon on new charges.
Wilkins -photo Shawnee County
Just after 1:30 a.m., Sunday police were dispatched to Resers Fine Foods Salad Plant, 3167 SE 10th on a report of a disturbance, according to Lt. John Trimble.
Officers met with employees who stated there was a disturbance involving 24-year-old Daquan D. Wilkins. During the investigation, officers located a firearm in possession of Wilkins who has previous felony convictions.
Wilkins was arrested and booked into the Shawnee County Department of Corrections for being a Felon in Possession of a Firearm.
Wilkins had been in on parole since December of 2017 following convictions of involuntary manslaughter, burglary, aggravated battery and robbery, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.
BARTON COUNTY — A Kansas man was convicted Friday of possession of methamphetamine and criminal threat in Barton County.
Foster -photo Barton Co.
A Great Bend Police officer began a traffic stop and ended up seizing a quantity of drugs from 30-year-old Michael Charles Foster, according to Barton County Attorney Amy Mellor.
After the officer began investigating the traffic matter, he used a drug dog to find what was later determined to be methamphetamine. The officer arrested Foster on the drug charge and took him to jail.
Foster’s troubles continued while being locked up. When he made a comment to one of the jailers about “what would happen if he found the officer (who arrested him) and beat him.” When advised not to speak like that, Foster responded by saying that it – criminal threat – would be his next charge. County Attorney Mellor said, “He was right.”
KANSAS CITY (AP) — Federal officials say a 52-year-old Kansas City fire captain has been charged with illegally selling several firearms to people he allegedly knew were felons.
Prosecutors say James Samuels sold guns to people who told him they were going to use them to shoot people.
Samuels allegedly bought 77 firearms in the last several years and gave some of them to a co-conspirator, who then reported them stolen.
The charges were filed under seal Monday and made public Friday after Samuels was arrested and appeared in court.
Court records indicate the charges stem from the Sept. 5 sale of an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle to a confidential informant for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Samuels is in custody pending an Oct. 11 court appearance.
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — A 41-year-old woman has been charged with stealing money from the PTA at an Overland Park Elementary School.
Ridgway -photo Johnson County
Kelli Angela Ridgway was booked into the Johnson County Jail Thursday on a charge of felony theft. She was released later after posting bond.
The charges in Johnson County District Court allege that Ridgway stole between $1,500 and $25,000 in November 2016 from the PTA at John Diemer Elementary School.
No attorney for Ridgway is listed in court records. Her initial court appearance is scheduled for Oct. 16.
KANSAS CITY (AP) — Kansas City developer Dan Lowe says police have recommended setting aside an investigation of a claim made by a former employee that a spy camera was placed under her desk at Legacy Development.
Mary Caffrey, of Leawood, Kansas, sued Lowe, Legacy Development and others in May. She alleged that she was fired after she called police when she found the camera.
In response to the lawsuit, Lowe’s lawyers submitted a police department report that says a detective recommended deactivating the case because no evidence was found from the spy camera.
Attorney David Churbuck said in a statement Friday that Lowe denies Caffrey’s allegations and that police found no evidence to connect Lowe to the camera.
Caffrey’s attorney, Rik Siro, said that he would file a response to Lowe’s filing soon.
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KANSAS CITY – A former legal director for a commercial development firm in Kansas City alleges in a lawsuit that she discovered a camera installed underneath her desk and was fired after calling police.
The Kansas City Star reports that Mary Caffrey, of Leawood, Kansas, is suing Legacy Development, managing partner Dan Lowe and the firm’s chief financial officer, Sue Gallatin, in Jackson County Circuit Court.
Caffrey alleges that she called police last summer after finding the secretive recording device underneath her office desk and pointed in her direction. She was terminated five days later. The lawsuit says Lowe and Gallatin knew Caffrey used her office to undress and change into workout clothes.
Lowe and Gallatin didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment from The Star. Caffrey is seeking unspecified damages.
GRANT COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating an accident during a chase just before 11p.m. Saturday in Grant County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a Grant County Deputy and a Ulysses Police officer were in pursuit of a 2000 Lexus eastbound on Road 11 four miles east of Ulysses.
The driver lost control of the vehicle. It left the roadway into the north ditch, catapulting into the power line, flipped several times. Power lines were trapped underneath the Lexus after it came to rest in the field north of Road 11.
A passenger Damian Badillo, 23, Lakin, was transported to the hospital in Ulysses. Authorities were still working to identify the driver early Sunday.
The chase started after report of a stolen vehicle in Kearny County, according to the Grant County sheriff’s department.
New research out of Stanford University shows that limiting wastewater injection is helping to prevent man-made earthquakes in Kansas and Oklahoma.
The researchers have created a new physics-based model that can better predict where man-made earthquakes will occur by looking at increases in pressure. The model shows that the number of earthquakes is driven by how much wastewater is being injected into the ground.
“It is clear that the key to managing the seismic hazard related to induced earthquakes is managing injection rates,” said Cornelius Langenbruch, one of the authors of the study.
Previous prediction methods relied on looking at past seismic activity to predict future activity. But that method isn’t very effective when earthquakes are being caused by an external force; in this case an increase in pressure caused by large amounts of wastewater from oil and gas operations being injected into the ground.
Langenbruch said injection limits put into place by state regulators have made a difference. His model predicts that at current injection rates, the number of widely felt earthquakes in Kansas and Oklahoma will decrease to as few as 100 by 2020. That’s down from the thousands of earthquakes felt in the area at its peak in 2015.
“Based on our model we can make scientific decisions about how to optimize injection rates in space in time to mitigate the seismic hazard,” he said.
He said the maps can also be used to identify the probablity that a damaging earthquake will happen close to homes or critical infrastructure.
TOPEKA – Governor Jeff Colyer officially proclaimed Oct. 7-13, 2018, as Fire Prevention Week in Kansas.
The Office of the State Fire Marshal (OSFM) and Safe Kids Kansas teamed up with the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) — the official sponsor of Fire Prevention Week™ for more than 90 years — to promote this year’s Fire Prevention Week campaign, “Look. Listen. Learn. Be aware. Fire can happen anywhere™,” which works to educate the public about basic but essential ways to quickly and safely escape a home fire.
In Kansas, 100 percent of civilian fire deaths in 2017 occurred in residential structure fires, and there were 2,589 residential fires in Kansas in 2017, resulting in 18 deaths and 214 injuries.
NFPA statistics show that the number of U.S. home fires has been steadily declining over the past few decades. However, the death rate per 1000 home fires that are reported to fire departments was 10 percent higher in 2016 than in 1980.
While people feel safest in their home, it is also the place people are at greatest risk to fire, with four out of five U.S. fire deaths occurring at home. That over-confidence contributes to a complacency toward home escape planning and practice.
“We know that people often make choices in fire situations that jeopardize their safety or even cost them their lives,” Doug Jorgensen, State Fire Marshal, said. “We need to do a better job of teaching people about the potentially life-saving difference escape planning and practice can make and motivating them to action.”
Safe Kids Kansas reminds families that Saturday, Oct. 13, is Home Fire Drill Day. This is an opportunity to plan, talk about and practice your fire plan with all your family members, especially young children, so they know what to do when they hear a smoke alarm.
“Teach children to get low and get out when they hear the smoke alarm,” Cherie Sage, Safe Kids Kansas, said. “A child who has practiced getting out of the home and to a safe meeting spot will have a better chance of getting out of danger safely during a real emergency , so practice your escape plan regularly as a family.”
Jorgensen says this year’s “Look. Listen. Learn.” campaign highlights three steps people can take to help quickly and safely escape a fire.
Look for places fire could start.
Listen for the sound of the smoke alarm.
Learn two ways out of every room.
While OSFM, Safe Kids Kansas and NFPA are focusing on home fires, these fire safety messages apply to virtually anywhere.
“Situational awareness is a skill people need to use wherever they go,” Jorgensen said. “No matter where you are, look for available exits. If the alarm system sounds, take it seriously and exit the building immediately.”
For more information about Fire Prevention Week activities in Kansas, visit firemarshal.ks.gov. To learn more about this year’s Fire Prevention Week campaign, “Look. Listen. Learn.” and home escape planning, visit firepreventionweek.org.
