Law enforcement authorities on the scene of the fatal shooting Christmas night-photo courtesy KCTV
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas City, Kansas, man fatally shot during a Christmas Day gathering has been identified.
Police say 71-year-old Ernest Moore Sr. was found about 6 p.m. Monday outside a home. A woman was also wounded by gunfire and was taken to a hospital, but her injuries are being called minor.
Police say shots fired in an alley penetrated a house and struck the woman. Moore was fatally struck when he went out of the front of the house. He was found dead in a neighbor’s yard.
Police say there appeared to be a family gathering at the house at the time of the shooting.
No arrests have been made.
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KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a woman was wounded when gunfire went through a Kansas City, Kansas, house during a Christmas Day gathering and that a man was killed when he came out of the house.
The Kansas City Star reports that shots fired in an alley penetrated the house Monday night, sending the woman to a hospital with minor wounds. A man in his 70s was hit by more gunfire when he went out of the front of the house. He was found dead in a neighboring yard.
Police spokesman Patrick McCallop says there appeared to be a family gathering at the house and detectives were interviewing those who were there, as well as neighbors. No suspects were immediately arrested.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — An investigation is underway after a suburban Kansas City firefighter was found dead in his bed at the fire station.
The Kansas City Star reports that 46-year-old Jason Garrett had been with the Kansas City, Kansas, Fire Department for more than five years. He was found dead in his bed Tuesday morning at Fire Station 19.
The cause of death is not known but authorities believe Garrett died of natural causes. He was a paramedic in addition to being a firefighter.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Newly released video images show that 3-year-old Wichita boy was kept nude on a concrete floor, with a belt around his neck and his hands tied behind his back before his body was found encased in concrete.
The image was included in the arrest affidavit released last week for Miranda Miller, and her live-in boyfriend, Stephen Bodine. They are charged with murder in the death of Miller’s son, Evan Brewer. The toddler’s paternal grandfather is former Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer, who is running for governor.
Miller-photo Sedgwick Co.
Evan had been the subject of a custody battle, and his father contacted the Kansas Department for Children and Families and police with concerns. The new leader of DCF is calling for a thorough review of the agency.
LIBERAL, Kan. (AP) — A former high school track coach in Kansas is facing criminal charges accusing him of inappropriately touching two students.
Tyson McGuire is jailed on charges of rape and sexual battery. He was arrested earlier this month.
Police say a Liberal High School administrator contacted authorities in November, after two female students reported that McGuire touched them inappropriately while treating them for sports-related injuries. McGuire was placed on leave at that time, pending an investigation.
The school board voted 6-0 on Dec. 20 to terminate McGuire’s contract.
WICHITA —Fifty-eight tornadoes were reported across Kansas in 2017. This is well below the 1990-2017 annual average of about 91 tornadoes, and Kansas’ 4th fewest annual total since 1990.
These numbers are preliminary and may change slightly over the next few months, according to the National Weather Service.
In addition, eight tornadoes occurred across Kansas last Christmas. They were the first ever to occur on Christmas Day, and a record number for December.
Sen. Carolyn McGinn, a Sedgwick Republican, said she thinks a state attorney’s request for lawmakers to pass a school finance bill by March 1 is “doable,” but she added: “We’re going to have to get down to some serious work.” CELIA LLOPIS-JEPSEN / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
Kansas lawmakers are facing an even tighter deadline to pass a new school finance law this session, after an attorney for the state encouraged them to finish their work on the topic less than two months into the coming 2018 legislative session.
Asked by lawmakers last week what legal staff need to help make the state’s case, Arthur Chalmers urged them to aim for the start of March for handing off a new school finance bill rather than sometime closer to the date the Kansas Supreme Court set for filing the state’s arguments.
“April 30 is too late,” Chalmers told a House-Senate committee on school finance that is meeting outside the regular legislative session. “That’s when the brief is due.”
Once lawmakers pass the bill, he said, it still will need to reach the governor’s desk. Then the state’s legal team will need to collect committee meeting minutes and supplementary materials for the court and write a brief defending the Legislature’s response.
“The Legislature needs to make these difficult decisions and work something out, as a practical matter, by about March 1,” Chalmers said.
The Kansas Supreme Court found the state’s school finance formula unconstitutional in October and set an April 30 deadline for the Legislature and governor to address the court’s concerns and submit legal briefs defending their response.
Arthur Chalmers, an attorney for the state, told a committee of lawmakers Monday that they should have a school funding bill done by the start of March so attorneys have time to prepare briefs for the Kansas Supreme Court. CREDIT CELIA LLOPIS-JEPSEN / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
Chalmers said in the last court round, state lawyers didn’t receive all the related minutes and materials from the Legislature until the day before the state’s brief was due.
Sen. Carolyn McGinn, chairwoman of the Senate’s budget committee, said she thinks Chalmers’ request to pass a bill by March 1 is “doable” but added: “We’re going to have to get down to some serious work.”
McGinn, a Sedgwick Republican, noted that a potential conversation about amending the Kansas Constitution could take up time in the Legislature.
“If that gets some legs, we’ll spend some time on that,” she said, “and we really need to work on addressing a response for the courts.”
Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, of Topeka, said it’s important to give the state’s lawyers the time they need to prepare their brief before they appear at the Kansas Supreme Court.
“If that’s what the state’s lawyer is telling us, then that’s a deadline we’ll have to meet,” Hensley said.
The special school finance committee — created to lay groundwork ahead of the 2018 session that starts in January — will meet again Tuesday to hear about the differences between the wording and obligations in the Kansas Constitution and those of other states.
Kansans added the provision in the 1960s by popular vote, and changing it would require a two-thirds majority in both chambers of the Legislature and a regular majority in a public referendum.
Proposals to amend the state constitution in relation to school finance — with the goal of restricting the authority of the judicial branch to weigh in on the matter — have cropped up in at least 15 Kansas legislative sessions since the early 1990s.
The topic was especially heated during the 2005 special session, when lawmakers came back to Topeka in June under a court order to add $143 million to schools by July 1 of that year. None of the multiple proposals introduced in 2005 made it out of the Legislature, though two of them passed the Senate.
Other proposals since the early 1990s also failed before reaching a referendum.
On Monday, Sen. Dennis Pyle, a Hiawatha Republican, announced he has filed a proposal to change the constitution in such a way that courts would not be allowed to cut off funding to schools — effectively closing them — as a way of enforcing rulings that the state’s school funding system is unconstitutional.
Law enforcement on the scene of the arrest onI-70 Christmas night-photo Sherman Co. Sheriff
SHERMAN COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities in northwest Kansas were busy on Christmas night.
Deputies were notified that an individual was eluding law enforcement east bound on Interstate 70 in Sherman County and traveling into Thomas County, according to a social media report.
The Individual decided to return to Sherman County where he was taken into custody without incident.
Sheriff Burton Pianalto praised the work of all of those involved to take this individual into custody without incident and he had a little fun with the arrest, “just think, this individual almost missed out on saying he got to spend Christmas in Jail.”
The sheriff’s department did not release additional details on the incident.
SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating an armed robbery and asking for help to identify a suspect.
Just before 6p.m. on Christmas Eve, police responded to an armed robbery at the Nu Way in the 3400 block of east Harry in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson.
A 45-year-old man upon leaving work he was approached by an unknown suspect carrying a shotgun.
The suspect pointed the shotgun at the victim and demanded money. Money was taken by the suspect and the suspect fled the scene on foot.
There were no injuries, according to Davidson. The suspect is described as an unknown black male, 5-foot-10, 180lbs, wearing an orange hoodie.
If anyone has any additional information on this case please call Crime Stoppers at 316.267.2111.
RENO COUNTY — A Kansas man was injured in an accident just after 10a.m. Monday in Reno County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan driven by Orvin R Schrock, 76, Haven, was traveling northeast on Arlington Road crossing K-96. The driver failed to yield to an eastbound 2008 Volvo driven by Treva J. Strand, 64, Hutchinson.
The Volvo struck the van.
Schrock was transported to Hutchinson Regional Medical Center. Strand was not injured. Both drivers were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.
Fire crews work to help the elephant earlier this month-Photo courtesy city of Topeka
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Topeka Zoo officials are expecting inspections of its elephant program after one of the elephants died.
Zoo director Brendan Wiley says the zoo expects to know by early January what killed the elephant, Shannon. The 35-year-old elephant died after spending about 20 hours lying on the ground over two days.
The elephant was found on the ground Dec. 10. She was lifted back up but was found on the ground again the next morning. She died that day.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports the zoo this week began using a remote video system to monitor the elephants at all times.
A California-based animal welfare organization says the Topeka Zoo was negligent for not better monitoring the elephant. In Defense of Animals wants zoo’s remaining elephants removed and the zoo’s accreditation revoked.
