FINNEY COUNTY – School district and law enforcement authorities in Finney County are investigating an alleged threat against a school and have made an arrest.
On Monday, the school resource officer assigned to the Garden City High School received information of threats of violent acts over social media that would occur at an undisclosed Garden City School, according to a media release.
With the help of USD 457 authorities identified the person responsible for the social media threats. He was identified as Alan Marquez,14, of Garden City.
Police located him and arrested him at his residence. He is being held in the Juvenile Detention Center and could face the possible charges of Criminal Threat.
At no time were any school, facility or students in immediate danger, according to police.

WICHITA – A Kansas man was sentenced Monday to seven years in federal prison for his part in robbing a local bank, according to U.S. Attorney Tom Beall.

Andre Bryant, 30, Wichita, pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting or brandishing a firearm in a crime of violence.

In his plea, he admitted that on June 13, 2016, he and co-defendants robbed the Carson Bank at 4461 E. Douglas in Wichita.

Two individuals who were disguised entered the bank, one of them brandishing a firearm. They demanded and received money before fleeing. The money they received contained a global positioning device that police used to track Bryant and the co-defendants and arrest them.

Co-defendants Raishat Magill and Elijah Shelton are set for sentencing Thursday.

 

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Police say a 15-year-old drove into a Lawrence duplex, sending two people to the hospital with minor injuries.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports that the crash happened Monday night when the boy failed to negotiate a turn. The car he was driving hit a curb before crashing through a duplex wall. The vehicle was nearly entirely inside the building when it came to a stop.

The boy fled the scene on foot. Lawrence Police Department spokeswoman Kim Murphree said in an email that he was later found and cited on suspicion of leaving the scene of an accident and driving without a valid driver’s license.

The girl who was riding in the passenger seat wasn’t hurt. But Murphree says both people inside the home were taken to Lawrence Memorial Hospital.

SEDGWICK COUNTY -Law enforcement authorities in Sedgwick County have confirmed how a Wichita police K-9 died.

On March 28, officials at Kansas State University conducted a necropsy on Wichita Police Department K9 Rooster, according to Wichita police spokesperson Sgt. Nikki Woodrow during Tuesday’s online media briefing.

The results of the examination showed the dog sustained a gunshot wound to the left shoulder. The bullet traveled through his body hitting vital organs and exiting the right side.

Due to the trajectory of the bullet, evidence at the scene and video, investigators determined the bullet that killed Rooster was fired by 25-year-old Kevin Perry during a domestic disturbance call.

On March 26, officers responding to the domestic disturbance surrounded a home before 25- Perry walked out with a gun in his waistband. Rooster was sent after the suspect to stop him from re-entering the home.
That’s when gunfire was exchanged, striking both the dog and the man.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Multi-state crime spree suspect Alex Deaton’s cases in Mississippi’s Rankin County will be presented to a grand jury this month.

But District Attorney Michael Guest tells WLBT-TV that it will be a while before he stands trial in the Magnolia state.

Guest says Kansas authorities have notified his office that they intend to bring Deaton to trial for crimes there before returning him to Mississippi. He says that trial will happen no earlier than six months from now.

Deaton is charged with one count of attempted first-degree murder, theft, armed robbery and personal felony after shooting a convince store clerk in Pratt.

In Mississippi, he faces murder charges for the deaths of his girlfriend and another woman, and aggravated assault after the shooting of a jogger. He also faces carjacking charges in New Mexico.

JUNCTION CITY, Kan. (AP) — Fire officials estimate that a weekend apartment complex fire in Junction City caused nearly $3.8 million in damage.

The Junction City Fire Department said Monday that additional individual property loss for residents will vary.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that firefighters dumped more than 1.6 million gallons of water on the blaze in the Bluffs Apartment complex after responding early Saturday. The fire damaged 28 units across the three-story building.

The cause is under investigation. A fire last April ravaged another building at the Bluffs.

SHAWNEE, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a man whose body was found in a Kansas City-area park’s lake had been reported missing for more than a month.

Sheriff’s officials in Kansas’ Johnson County say fingerprint analyses confirmed the man’s identity as 35-year-old Dawit Tesfaye.

Authorities say Tesfaye went missing on March 2. His body was spotted by a kayaker about 1:30 p.m. last Saturday in Shawnee Mission Park’s lake.

The sheriff’s department said Tuesday that there are no indications of foul play related to Tesfaye’s death, and that the preliminary investigation suggests that he accidentally drowned.

Investigators say they’re awaiting the official coroner’s report.

SEDGWICK COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Sedgwick County are investigating the theft of a trailer from the Boy Scouts.

Between April 9 and 10th someone took the trailer full of camping equipment from the parking lot at 11215 west 13th street north in Wichita, according to Wichita police Sgt. Nikki Woodrow during Tuesday’s online media briefing.

The beige, 14×7 dual axel, enclosed trailer has double doors on the rear and includes an entry door on the side. It also has an Interstate logo on the front and on the rear.

The Kansas tag is 918JVT

The Boy Scout troop 450 did a lot of work to raise the money for the camping equipment, according to Woodrow.

SALINE COUNTY -Law enforcement authorities in Saline County are investigating a suspect for an alleged kidnapping.

Just after 8 p.m. Monday police, the Kansas Highway Patrol and a 12-member SWAT team arrested Matthew Collier, 30, at a Salina apartment 2363 Chapel Ridge.

Collier was being sought by authorities after he allegedly kidnapped two Salina women at gunpoint last week.

Just after 8:30 p.m. on April 5, police responded to a home in south Salina following a report of a possible kidnapping. Two female acquaintances of Collier told authorities that he kidnapped them at gunpoint, returning them to the residence several hours later. Police Capt. Paul Forrester said that Collier used a shotgun that he took from the home. They have yet to recover the weapon, he added.

Collier was serving parole in Salina for an attempted homicide that occurred in California in 2006, according to Capt. Forrester. Collier spent eight years in prison before his parole in June of 2016.

Collier now faces two counts of kidnapping, two counts of aggravated assault, two counts of robbery, two counts of attempted robbery, criminal damage to property, two counts of criminal threat, domestic battery, battery, two counts of criminal restraint, theft of a firearm and criminal possession of a weapon.

Capt. Forrester said that the new charges will violate his California parole.

RENO COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities in Reno County are investigating a suspect on charges of alleged attempted second-degree murder.

On Monday, the Reno County Sheriff’s Department served a warrant on a complaint against 51-year-old Troy Snell of Hutchison.

The complaint by Senior Assistant District Attorney John Settle alleges the victim was cleaning her residence in the 100 block of South Maple in Hutchinson on April 2.

Snell was there and found a letter in her belongings that upset him.

He was described as an on-and-off-again boyfriend of the victim and is alleged to have tried to strangle her using his hands and a cloth-like rope, according to Reno County District Attorney Keith Schroeder.

Police were initially called to the scene for the report of an aggravated burglary. When they arrived, Reno County EMS was already on scene treating the victim.

Snell is jailed on a $150,000

He has prior convictions for battery of a corrections officer, criminal damage to property and burglary, according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.

By FRANK MORRIS

Voters in south central Kansas will be the first in the nation to decide a congressional race in the age of Trump. The special election in the Kansas 4th District will replace Mike Pompeo, who now leads the CIA. It’s a district that would, under normal circumstances, be considered a lock for the Republican candidate. But of course, these are not normal times, and resources are flowing into the district from left and right.

Last November, when Democrats in rest of the country woke up to Donald Trump’s surprise win, Kansas Democrats had something to celebrate. After years in the wilderness, Kansas Democrats converted a dozen seats in the state Legislature in 2016. Trump’s victory and his appointment of then Kansas 4th District Congressman Mike Pompeo to head the CIA presented another opportunity.

The Democrat is a Sanders guy

James Thompson, a Sanders-inspired newbie, managed to beat a well-known politician in a local party convention to become the Democrats’ candidate in the 4th.

Thompson is a civil rights attorney and strongly pro-union. He grew up dirt poor, mainly in Oklahoma, and he served in the Army, a fact he promotes in his advertisements.

“I want to be your congressman,” states Thompson in one 30-second spot. “I’m going to fight for our jobs, fight for our veterans, and fight for our personal freedoms,” says Thompson as an image of him aiming a military-style rifle crosses the screen.

Thompson says he has lots of grassroots support, and he has been able to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars, reportedly, with help from a Sanders email list. The liberal website Daily Kos has been promoting his candidacy, and a group called Democracy for America has been lining up people from across the country to call 4th District voters on Thompson’s behalf.

The Republican is a Trump guy 

Ron Estes is running TODAY for Congress in the Great State of Kansas. A wonderful guy, I need his help on Healthcare & Tax Cuts (Reform).

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 11, 2017

Thompson’s Republican opponent, Ron Estes, is hardly defenseless. The Kansas 4th is, after all, home to Charles Koch, Koch Industries and the Kansas Chamber of Commerce. In addition to Wichita, the district includes most of south central Kansas, a conservative stronghold. And Estes is an established insider.

“Ron Estes is the Kansas State Treasurer, and he’s, not a very well-known person, and nothing against him, but not a very dynamic politician,” says Bob Beatty, professor of political science at Washburn University.

Beatty says Estes is, however, a familiar face around Wichita, where he served as Sedgwick County Treasurer. Estes has worked as a manager in the oil and manufacturing businesses. He stands out among Kansas Republicans as an early and avid Trump supporter. Like Trump, Estes promises to cut regulations, and bring back manufacturing jobs.

In one ad he stands in an algae-covered pond, repeating Trump’s pledge to “drain the swamp”.

“After eight years of Obama, America is weaker, and the swamp is deeper than we thought,” says Estes in the ad. “And now the liberal activists are trying to steal this election, by supporting a Bernie Sanders-backed lawyer,” Estes continues with swamp images flashing on the screen.

4th District race overshadowed

With the Trump guy versus Sanders guy match-up, you’d expect this first congressional election of the new presidency to draw attention. But another race is attracting millions of dollars from all over the country sucking the political oxygen — money that is — out of the Kansas 4th where fundraising is measured in hundreds of thousands.

“There’s clearly going to be enough to run a solid campaign,” says Neal Allen, who teaches political science at Wichita State University. “But for both Republicans and especially Democrats, the fact that the Georgia 6th, looks to be very competitive, and that election occurs a week after the Kansas 4th, that has drawn most of the national money.”

That Georgia race is to replace Tom Price, who Trump named to be Secretary of Health and Human Services. Georgia’s 6th is in suburban Atlanta. It’s also supposed to be a safe Republican seat. But the four viable Republican contenders face one Democrat; and the Democrat, Jon Ossoff, has raised more than $8 million. Ossoff is generating so much support that he threatens to win 50 percent in a crowded field and forego a runoff election. The national GOP is going to the mat to stop him.

While the race in Georgia overshadows the Kansas 4th on the national scene, Thompson isn’t even getting a lot of support from the Kansas Democratic Party. In fact his campaign has feuded with party leaders over a request for a measly $20,000. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has been completely silent in Thompson’s race.

“If the Democrats are going to take the House back, they probably have to take a few districts like the Georgia 6th in the north Atlanta suburbs,” says Allen. “But the Kansas 4th is just a lot more Republican.  And the kind of voters that tend to be swinging toward the Democrats are just not that populous around Wichita.”

Tough territory for Democrats 

In the last three congressional elections, Democratic challengers attracted only about 30 percent of the vote against Mike Pompeo. Beatty says it’s unlikely Thompson will turn that around in the space of a few months.

“Everybody would just be shocked if Thompson won. Personally, if it were within single digits, in Kansas, I’d say, that’s unbelievable!” says Beatty

But, guess what, late last week the Kansas 4th District race suddenly popped up on Washington’s radar. The National Republican Congressional Committee abruptly weighed in with an attack ad. Republican operatives have been telling reporters that the Kansas race is uncomfortably close.

Beatty doesn’t buy it. He doesn’t think the talk, or the GOP’s last-minute ad buy necessarily signals a big turn in the race. He says the idea may be simply to make sure that Estes’s base takes the election seriously. Because, as early turnouts indicate, it’s a pretty safe bet that Thompson’s core people will.

Frank Morris is a national correspondent and senior editor at kcur.org, a partner in the Kansas News Service. You can reach him on Twitter @FrankNewsman.

RENO COUNTY – A 9-year-old Kansas boy was injured in a farming accident just after 7p.m. Monday in Reno County.

First responders were dispatched to the southwest corner of a field near Kansas 14 highway and Arlington Road, according to the Reno County Sheriff’s Department.

The boy’s father told deputies his 10-year-old daughter was driving a tractor in the field, when the his 9-year-old son fell and was run over by the front and rear tires of the tractor.

The boy was walking in front of the tractor, cutting small trees down and throwing them in to the bucket of the tractor.

An emergency medical helicopter transported the boy to Wesley Medical Center in Wichita. according to the sheriff’s department.

Name of the victim was not released.

HARVEY COUNTY – Law enforcement and school authorities are investigating an alleged threat of violence at a school in Newton.

On Monday, the administration at Chisholm Middle School became aware of a threat of violence communicated toward the school by a student, according to a social media report from Newton Police.

School administration and the school resource officer promptly began a thorough investigation of the perceived threat.

There is no evidence of a continuing danger to the school or any student.

Officials asked the community to be patient as they continue to work on this incident and they reminded the public that student safety remains a top priority of USD 373.