Law enforcement officers have closed a portion of K-61 in Pratt County due to a fatality accident involving four vehicles, including a tractor-trailer.
K-61 is closed between Preston and Pratt as officers continue to work at the accident, which occurred at about 3:40 p.m. near the intersection of K-61 and Northeast 70th, according to Pratt County Sheriff Vernon Chinn.
One person was killed in the accident, Chinn said. More details are expected to be released later by the Kansas Highway Patrol.
UPDATE 8:39 am: The suspect in the fatal shooting of two Topeka Police officers was killed after a shootout with KBI officers at a Topeka residence. The suspect was transported to a hospital where he later died.
UPDATE: A nearly two-hour standoff at a house in Topeka ended with police removing a man who was thought to be the suspect in the shooting deaths of two police officers.
KMBC-TV showed officers surrounding the home early Monday. The TV station reports that officers yelled the suspect’s name.
Officers have been hunting for a 22-year-old man who is suspected in the killing of two Topeka police officers Sunday night.
Early Monday, officers lobbed tear gas into the home, several apparent gunshots rang out and a police dog dragged something from the house. Reporters said a man who was not moving was removed from the building.
Several officers then entered the house and an ambulance drove away.
ORIGINAL Sunday 8:22 PM: Authorities say two Topeka police officers have been killed in a shooting outside a grocery store.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the officers were responding to a report of a suspicious vehicle.
Police Lt. Ron Gish says the officers arrived to the scene outside the grocery store Sunday evening in two separate vehicles.
A third officer who was also there was not injured.
The officers exchanged gunfire with a man described as being 22 years old and in a 1999 silver Toyota Camry.
UPDATE: The suspect has been identified as 22-year-old, David Edward Tiscareno, of Topeka. His vehicle is described as a 1999 silver Toyota Camry and he is believed armed and dangerous. The KHP is assisting with the search for Tiscareno.
Police have surrounded a house where the shooting suspect may be hiding.
A Derby man has been hospitalized after a skydiving accident.
The Wichita Eagle reports that the man’s parachute caught on a tree and collapsed near the end of his jump Saturday.
The man, who was not identified, fell 25 feet to the ground. Sedgwick County sheriff’s Sgt. Gary Hargus says the man was hospitalized with critical injuries.
He was part of a group of four skydivers who planned to land on Cook Airfield near Derby. All of their parachutes opened appropriately after they jumped at 1:50 p.m., but the man failed to turn into the wind and continued floating eastward past his fellow skydivers.
His parachute snagged the top of a tree and deflated.
Two people who were in a speeding car that crashed in Wichita abandoned a 20-year-old woman who suffered a broken neck and other serious injuries in the crash.
Wichita police say the woman was thrown from the passenger seat of the speeding vehicle when the driver apparently lost control and crashed into a concrete wall and a tree Saturday. Police Sgt. Scott Brunow told The Wichita Eagle that alcohol was found in the car.
He says the woman suffered “numerous broken bones” in addition to the neck injury and was taken to a hospital, where she was in serious condition. He says two other people in the car fled before police arrived, leaving the badly injured passenger alone. The driver hasn’t been identified.
A 20-year-old Hutchinson man was arrested around 11 am Friday morning when he showed up at a local apartment thinking he was going to meet a 15-year-old girl for a sexual relationship. Instead, Justin Richardson was greeted by police.
Hutchinson Police Detective Scott Carlton says he had been communicating with the man through Facebook since December 12 and decided to set up a sting. Allegedly, the man wanted sexual relations with what he thought was the teenage girl and even walked a mile and half because he had no transportation.
Potential charges include electronic solicitation and attempted aggravated indecent liberties with a child.
Bond in the case set at $30,000.
A central Kansas woman faces federal charges of stealing more than $211,000 from a Lyons livestock feeder to pay off losses from her own cattle business.
The U.S. attorney’s office on Friday charged 37-year-old Carrie L. Frederick of Sterling with three counts of wire fraud.
The government says Frederick owed Golden Belt Feeders near St. John more than $150,000. The debt stems from losses in cattle transactions she financed while serving on Golden Belt’s board.
Prosecutors allege that after Frederick began working in 2007 at Sellers Farms’ feeding operation in Lyons, she sent fraudulent faxes to banks for money transfers to cover personal expenses and repay her former employer.
Frederick’s lawyer did not return a call Friday. A phone number for her could not be found.
Frederick was summoned to appear in court Jan. 4.
UPDATE 2:41 PM: 18 children were pronounced dead at the scene of the shooting. 2 children died later at area hospitals. 7 adults have died, including the shooter.
A relative of shooter died from a gunshot wound at another location.
UPDATE 2:31: President Obama orders flags lowered to half-staff in mark of respect for victims of CT shootings.
UPDATE: According to NBC News, the shooter has been identified as 24-year-old Ryan Lanza. Lanza’s mother was reportedly a teacher at the elementary school.
UPDATE 11:56 AM: An official with knowledge of a shooting at a Connecticut elementary school says 27 people are dead, including 18 children.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is still under way.
ORIGINAL: The Associated Press citing officials, says a gunman has been killed after a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.
The AP reports the anonymous official said the gunman was armed with two weapons.
The Danbury News-Times also reports sources say the Sandy Hook School principal was killed in the Newtown shooting.
Police have made no official statement yet on deaths or injuries. Police were expected to hold a news conference some time after 12:30 pm. to give official details about what happened.
Gov. Dannel Malloy was heading to the shooting scene. A spokesman said via Twitter “Gov. Malloy just concluded a conference call w/ federal officials offering to provide any assistance the state needs.”
Topeka officials say a 2-year-old girl died after she was attacked by a pit bull mix at a relative’s home.
The child was attacked Thursday afternoon while she and her mother were visiting the relative. Her name has not been released.
Shawnee County Sheriff Lt. Danny Lotridge says the girl died after being taken to a Topeka hospital.
Officers did not release information on circumstances surrounding the attack.
The dog, a 6-year-old male, was taken away by animal control officers. Its fate was not immediately known.
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has chosen Jan. 15 as the date to deliver his annual State of the State address to a joint session of the Legislature.
The Republican governor will outline his legislative agenda for 2013 one day after lawmakers begin the annual session.
Brownback goes into the new year with sizeable GOP majorities in both chambers. Republicans outnumber Democrats 92-33 in the House and 32-8 in the Senate.
A new report shows that Sumner County was Kansas’ top 2012 winter wheat producer.
Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service reported Thursday that Sumner County growers cut 17.9 million bushels this year. McPherson County was second with 11.3 million bushels, followed by Reno County with 10.8 million bushels.
Sumner County, in south-central Kansas, also had the most harvested acres with 375,500 total acres. Reno County was second with 246,000 acres, and McPherson County came in third with 225,600 harvested acres.
But the highest yields were in Crawford County. Farmers there averaged 61.6 bushels of wheat per acre, breaking the record 50 bushels per acre set in 2003 and 1997.
Miami County had the second highest yield with 59.6 bushels per acre. Wilson County was third with 57.9 bushels.
A burglary suspect is in a Wichita hospital after being shot in the middle of the night by a rural Sumner County homeowner.
Sumner County sheriff’s Capt. Mike Yoder told The Wichita Eagle the 31-year-old suspect is expected to survive. He was in stable condition Thursday at Wesley Medical Center recovering from a gunshot wound in the torso.
The suspect has been identified as 31-year-old Jason M. Confer. Confer was convicted in 2010 of aggravated burglary, aggravated assault and failure to register under the Offender Registration Act.
The Mulvane homeowner has not been publicly identified.
Investigators say the homeowner awoke to noises around 3:30 a.m. Wednesday and found a man in his garage apparently trying to steal his Harley Davidson motorcycle.
The homeowner reportedly told the man to freeze, but the burglar charged him and punched him in the jaw. The homeowner told investigators he then shot the man in the upper left torso.
A south-central Kansas woman will spend at least 25 years behind bars for helping murder her boyfriend’s grandmother one year ago.
20-year-old Lyndsey Giovinazzo was sentenced Thursday in Butler County District Court to 25 years to life in prison.
Giovinazzo pleaded guilty in July to first-degree murder in the December 2011 strangling of Loyce Cody, grandmother of Jacob Allen Hoyt. The 69-year-old pre-school teacher was strangled in her Augusta home, where a car, debit cards and candy were stolen.
Hoyt’s trial had been scheduled for this month but has been postponed.
Hoyt and Giovinazzo were arrested shortly after the killing. They were driving Cody’s car when they arrested after a chase that reached 100 mph through Butler and Cowley counties.
An economic consulting firm predicts Kansas would lose nearly 40,400 jobs next year if no deal is struck on the so-called fiscal cliff.
A state-by-state analysis posted Wednesday by Regional Economic Models Inc. says the private sector in Kansas would take the biggest hit, with nearly 35,000 jobs at risk. The firm says retailers would suffer the most as consumers cut spending.
The fiscal cliff refers to automatic tax increases and cuts in government spending that would effect Jan. 1 unless Congress and the White House reach a deal to avert them.
For Kansas, Regional Economic Models projects a loss of $2.75 billion to $3 billion in gross domestic product unless an agreement is reached in Washington.
