SEDGWICK COUNTY- Law enforcement authorities in Sedgwick County are investigating a sexual assault and are asking the public for help to identify the suspect.
Just before 3 a.m. Sunday, a suspect entered an apartment in the 1400 Block of North Smith Court in Wichita, according to Sgt. Nikki Woodrow during Tuesday’s police briefing.
After entering the residence, the suspect sexually assaulted a 7-year-old girl and left. An adult in the residence heard the child crying, learned what happened and called 911.
The suspect is described as an unknown white male, clean shaven, light colored hair, jeans and an unknown shirt.
The child remains hospitalized.
Anyone who observed someone loitering, acting suspiciously in the area or who has direct information about the case is asked to call police.
SEDGWICK COUNTY— Police are looking for a driver who escaped from a car before a deadly train crash in Wichita.
Police spokesperson Sgt. Nikki Woodrow says the collision happened Sunday night when the vehicle left a road and became stuck on the railroad tracks.
The driver was able to get out of the car as a BNSF train approached, but a 40-year-old passenger identified as Deandre Parker, 40, Wichita, was killed in the crash.
Woodrow says the driver left the scene and that police are trying to identify him. Anyone with information is urged to call authorities.
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WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Police are looking for a driver who escaped from a car before a deadly train crash in Wichita.
Police spokesperson Sgt. Nikki Woodrow says the collision happened Sunday night when the vehicle left a road and became stuck on the railroad tracks. The driver was able to get out of the car as a BNSF train approached, but a 40-year-old passenger was killed in the crash.
Woodrow says the driver left the scene and that police are trying to identify him. Anyone with information is urged to call authorities.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A 70-year-old man who said he robbed a Kansas City, Kansas, bank so he could get away from his wife blamed his actions on depression.
A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced Lawrence John Ripple to probation.
Ripple went to the Bank of Labor — a block from the Kansas City, Kansas, police headquarters — last September and gave a note to a teller saying he had a gun and demanding money. After he was given money, Ripple waited for police.
Court records indicate Ripple wrote the robbery note in front of his wife and told her he would rather be in jail than at home.
The Kansas City Star reports (https://bit.ly/2sy6BIk ) Ripple told the judge Tuesday that heart surgery left him depressed and unlike himself before he robbed the bank.
Members of the trade mission delegation toured a working barn on the Gilberto Rojas Ranch in Limonal, Costa Rica. The delegation consisted of David Hobbs (back row, far left), American International Charolais Association; Billy Brown (back row, second from left), Kansas Department of Agriculture; Galen Fink (back row, second from right), Fink Beef Genetics in Randolph, Kansas; and Caitlyn Maloney (front row, second from left), Kansas Department of Agriculture.KDA
MANHATTAN — This spring, the Kansas Department of Agriculture led a trade mission to Costa Rica to establish and strengthen relationships with Costa Rican beef producers. The KDA delegation of Billy Brown and Caitlyn Maloney was joined by Galen Fink, owner of Fink Beef Genetics in Randolph, Kansas, and project partner David Hobbs, director of activities for the American International Charolais Association.
KDA has partnered with the Costa Rican National Institute of Innovation and Transfer in Agricultural Technology (INTA) to demonstrate the benefits of utilizing U.S. beef genetics in the national herd of Brahman-based cattle. A field day exhibiting the offspring of U.S. Charolais and Red Angus-sired calves was the focal point of the mission, as over sixty Costa Rican cattlemen were in attendance.
Through visits to Costa Rican ranches, genetics centers and academic institutions, the team gained useful insight on industry issues, listened to producers’ needs, made invaluable industry contacts, and solidified existing partnerships. Over the course of the week, the group was presented with numerous partnership opportunities in both the national and private sectors of the beef industry, which helped participants achieve useful insights for the future as the project moves forward.
“[This was] the best meeting INTA has ever put on,” said Fink. “It was in an area where there are a lot more cows, and producers were very serious about what they were doing. Some traveled up to 10 hours to get to the field day. Tour stops were outstanding.”
While U.S. exports of beef and beef products to Costa Rica have increased from $1.7 million in 2009 to $15.1 million in 2016, there has been a sustained decline in the cattle herd in Costa Rica, raising concerns about the sustainability of the local cow herd. “By utilizing U.S genetics through F1 crosses, Costa Rican producers can increase growth, reduce time to harvest, and improve overall efficiency while simultaneously being more environmentally friendly and sustainable,” said Brown, agribusiness development coordinator at KDA.
KDA strives to be a liaison and partner for the entire Kansas agricultural sector from farmers and ranchers to agribusinesses and food establishments and is dedicated to providing support, assistance, and opportunities to enhance Kansas businesses and grow agriculture in Kansas.
The trade mission was funded in part through U.S. Livestock Genetics Export, Inc. If you are interested in participating in upcoming trade missions, please go to agriculture.ks.gov/international or contact Suzanne Ryan-Numrich at [email protected] or call (785) 564-6704.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Wichita man who texted a photo of his dead girlfriend to his family has been sentenced to life in prison for killing her.
Forty-two-year-old Jonathan Perret won’t be eligible for parole for 25 years under the sentence imposed Tuesday. He pleaded guilty last month to felony murder for fatally shooting 42-year-old Melissa Englert while she checked on her parents’ house. They were out of town.
Messages sent to his son’s phone included a photo of a gun and a person lying on the ground. Perret called her a banshee in one message and said someone needed to shoot her, adding that “I did love her though!!!”
Perret told investigators that Englert asked to be shot after a night of drinking. Police said the couple had a history of domestic violence.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — The University of Kansas is devoting a residence hall wing to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students and their supporters.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports that Student Housing director Diana Robertson says more than 20 students have signed up to live in the “gender inclusive housing” in Lewis Hall for the upcoming school year. Robertson says a small waiting list for the wing indicates “we’re hitting a need.”
Besides catering to LGBT students, the wing also will house students who don’t identify exclusively as male or female, as well as those questioning their sexual identity.
Roommates will be assigned regardless of sex, gender identity, gender expression or sexual orientation. In the past, university housing officials worked on a case-by-case basis to place students who didn’t fit traditional gender profiles.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Court records say an investigation into a former Kansas police sergeant who’s charged with sex crimes began when his wife reported concerns about him texting teenage girls.
The affidavit for Valley Center police Sgt. Thomas Delgado was released Monday. The 49-year-old is facing charges of sexual exploitation of a child, sexual battery, attempted sexual battery, official misconduct and three counts of harassment by telecommunications device.
The affidavit says his wife contacted a sheriff’s lieutenant in November, the same month she filed for divorce. She reported that Delgado was “constantly” texting 14-to 17-year-old girls. She also said she “believes he gets their information from responding to 911 calls involving girls.”
Delgado resigned after his December arrest. He was previously a Sedgwick County sheriff’s patrol deputy.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas officials say the troubling rise in traffic fatalities across the state is accelerating.
AAA spokeswoman Jennifer Haugh says that Kansas is currently averaging more than one traffic fatality a day.
Data from AAA shows that there have been nearly 175 traffic deaths across the state this year through the end of May. That’s a 13 percent increase over the same time frame a year ago and a 44 percent increase from 2015.
Haugh says cheaper gas prices usually result in people driving more miles, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they drive safer. She says not wearing seatbelts and having short attention spans can contribute to the fatality increase.
AAA reports that there were more than 430 traffic deaths in Kansas for all of 2016.
Muriel, a 1935 Lockheed Electra L-10E -Photo courtesy Grace Mcguire
ATCHISON, Kan. (AP) — A nonprofit organization that purchased the last known airplane identical to the one Amelia Earhart flew has announced plans for a new airport facility that will serve as a museum to showcase the plane and as a terminal for airport traffic.
The Atchison Amelia Earhart Foundation is finalizing renderings of the $10 million Amelia Earhart Hangar Museum, developing a branding campaign and beginning a fundraising effort.
The historic plane known as Muriel will be the museum’s focal point. Muriel is an Electra Model 10E, which is the same model flown by aviator Earhart in her attempt to circle the globe. Muriel is the last surviving model of the 14 manufactured.
Foundation Chairwoman Karen Seaberg hopes the project will be completed within two years.
Jerry Moran speaks to residents at a town hall in Lenexa Monday. FRANK MORRIS / KCUR
By KYLE PALMER
Hundreds of people, including members of the activist group Indivisible KC, looked for answers at a town hall hosted by U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, a Republican from Kansas, Monday morning.
The Republican’s town hall at the Lenexa Conference Center was his first in Johnson County in over a year. It was a long time coming for some.
“Indivisible has been asking for a town hall in the eastern part of the state since January and we finally got one,” Indivisible KC Board Member Leslie Mark said.
Mark said members of the organization wanted to ask Moran about issues regarding healthcare, specifically the Republican-backed plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. It’s an issue she said other local Congress members have been closed-off about.
“We don’t have a lot of representatives willing to talk to us, so I give him a lot of kudos for doing this,” Mark said. “But it’s very distressing that it’s such an attenuated and hard to get to point.”
The issue came up frequently during the town hall with the crowd at times breaking out into chants and cheers.
At another point, Moran received applause for saying he would buck his GOP colleagues if necessary.
Mark, the Indivisible KC member, said healthcare has been mishandled by the Senate.
“The Senate is not following procedure and by having no hearings, by not having expert witness testimony, by having thirteen white men and no one else discussing it they’re going to fix what ails our country even though for the past forty years’ better heads, probably, have prevailed on this topic,” Mark said.
In addition to questions about the replacement for the Affordable Care Act, Indivisible planned to ask about Medicare expansion, taxes, the choice act and investigations on the Trump administration’s ties to Russia.
Afterwards, Moran told reporters he was “pleased with the magnitude and demeanor of the crowd.”
Katie Bernard contributed to this story. Kyle Palmer kcur.org’s morning newscaster.
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LENEXA, Kan. (AP) — Republican U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran has told a sometimes raucous crowd of hundreds that he would have voted against a House-passed bill that would repeal and replace the Obama-era federal health care overhaul law.
The Kansas City Star reports that Moran spoke Monday at a conference center in Johnson County, which President Donald Trump won by fewer than 3 percentage point.
Moran says he’s waiting to see the final version of the Senate’s bill before determining how he’ll vote. He bemoaned it being drafted in closed meetings but wouldn’t commit to withholding his vote if there aren’t open hearings.
It was the first in-person public town hall meeting in the county since Trump took office. Sen. Pat Roberts and Rep. Kevin Yoder haven’t had such meetings in recent months.
SALINE COUNTY – First responders had a difficult trip after a collision with a deer early Tuesday.
Just before 3a.m. Saline County Emergency Medical Services were sent to a rural Gypsum residence for a 76-year-old woman with abnormal breathing.
Despite lights and sirens on, a deer ran into the passenger side door of the emergency vehicle in the 2400 block of East K-4 Highway, according to Saline County Sheriff Roger Soldan.
Chad Perez, 43, Salina, was driving the EMS vehicle at the time of the collision.
Emergency crews were able to still respond to the call.
A Sheriff’s deputy was sent to the location, where he found the dead deer in the ditch. Sheriff Soldan said the EMS vehicle had a dent in the passenger side but a damage estimate was not available.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Flags are being flown at half-staff in honor of Kansas Rep. Patsy Terrell who was found dead last week in her hotel room near the Capitol.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that flags will remain in that position at all state buildings, state grounds and state facilities through Saturday, when she will be interred.
The Hutchinson Democrat was found dead last Wednesday. Topeka police said they didn’t believe foul play was involved.
The day before her death, Terrell was one of 88 House members who voted to override Brownback’s veto of a tax bill. The freshman legislator said in one of her last tweets that she was “happy to be one of those override votes” and that it was “what people sent me here to do.”
SEDGWICK COUNTY- Law enforcement authorities in Sedgwick County are investigating a sexual assault and are asking the public for help to identify the suspect.
