WICHITA – Law enforcement authorities are investigating an armed robbery and need help identifying a suspect.

Just after 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, officers were dispatched to an armed robbery with shots fired at the Gordman’s in the 7000 block of west Central in Wichita.

Witnesses and employees told police an unknown suspect approached two employees working in the customer service area.

The suspect produced a black handgun, pointed it at the female clerk, demanded money and fired a shot. It did not hit her.

The suspect then pointed the handgun at the male clerk and demanded money. The suspect then fired a second shot grazing the shoulder of the male employee.

The suspect then fled the store on foot with cash and several rounds were fired in the parking lot.

Another suspect left the store with clothing, according to officer Charley Davidson. Police are working to determine if the two were working together.

On Wednesday, police released security camera pictures of the suspect.  He is described a light-skinned black male, in his early 20s, 6-foot tall and was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, tan shorts, white cap and was carrying a red backpack.  The second suspect is a black male who wore a yellow shirt, black shorts and had long hair pulled back in a pony-tail with a red streak.

Anyone with additional information on the case is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 267-2111 or WPD Detectives at 267-2111.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Sixteen empty cars on a Union Pacific freight train derailed near downtown Topeka near the Kansas River.

Union Pacific spokesman Jeff DeGraff says no injuries were reported after the derailment Wednesday morning.

He says the cars derailed on a curve and landed on their side just south of a railroad bridge that crosses the river.

The derailed cars were near the middle of the 80 railroad cars being pulled by the train. Another locomotive was called to move the cars that stayed upright.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports the derailed cars were moved off the track about two hours after the derailment.

DeGraff says the derailment caused minimal damage to the track.

JUNCTION CITY – The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) identified Wednesday identied the Fort Riley man killed in a confrontation with police Tuesday outside the Walmart Neighborhood Market in Junction City, as 23-year-old Peter James Robbins.

According to a KBI media release. the preliminary information indicates that officers from the Junction City Police Department were dispatched to conduct a welfare check at a residence on the west side of Junction City at approximately 12:45 a.m. Soon after arriving at the residence, another call came in reporting an armed disturbance only a few blocks away at the Walmart Neighborhood Market, 1723 McFarland Roadd., Junction City.

Officers from both the Junction City Police Department and the Geary County Sheriff’s Office responded to the Walmart parking lot. Once they arrived, they located a male subject armed with two handguns on the sidewalk north of the parking lot. The male subject was given commands to drop his weapons. The confrontation escalated further and four law enforcement officers from two agencies fired at the subject.

Robbins was pronounced dead at the scene.

No law enforcement officers were injured during this incident.

By CELIA LLOPIS-JEPSEN

Fourteen schools in seven school districts across Kansas will work this year on revamping the way they serve children, with the goal of becoming statewide models for overhauling primary and secondary education.

The education department is branding the effort to re-envision schools as Kansas’ version of “a moon shot,” referring to the U.S. race to put a man on the moon in the 1960s.

The participants announced Tuesday range in size from the Kansas City area’s 29,000-student Olathe school district — the state’s second-largest — to the 340-student rural Stockton district in northwest Kansas.

In each district, one elementary school and one secondary school will join the effort. The schools will collaborate with the state education department, which is promoting a vision that focuses more on the individual goals of students and less on standardized testing.

Among other things, this vision involves having schools work with secondary students to develop individualized plans of study that help them explore their career aspirations — such as through internships and career classes — and identify appropriate steps, which might include pursuing college for some and technical education or other training for others.

Little information was available as to the concrete changes schools will carry out. Teachers and administrators will have leeway in shaping their efforts locally but will be expected to build and launch their schools’ redesign plans within a year.

Randy Watson, education commissioner, outlined the project during the Kansas State Board of Education meeting in Topeka. Asked how the schools would achieve successful overhauls on a short timeline — academics have spent decades researching how to improve schools — Watson said Kansas is rethinking the system as a whole.

“We’re about — in 12 months — to invert the system and be totally focused on the child,” he said. “This has got to be about teacher voice and student voice. And then it has to be not about, ‘What English credits do I need?’ it’s ‘What do I need to be successful at what I want to become?’”

The schools will not receive extra dollars to achieve their goals but will have support from the education department and outside education and youth groups.

The student bodies at the participating schools vary demographically and include some with significant proportions of children from low-income or minority backgrounds. Kansas, like the country as a whole, is trying to address low academic achievement among students in racial minority groups or from low-income families.

The moon-shot initiative did not attract applications from the state’s largest urban, high-poverty districts: Wichita, Kansas City and Topeka.

The seven participating districts and their schools are:

• Coffeyville USD 445, Community Elementary School and Field Kindley Memorial High.
• Liberal USD 480, Meadowlark Elementary School and Liberal High School.
• McPherson USD 418, Eisenhower Elementary School and McPherson Middle School.
• Olathe USD 233, Westview Elementary School and Santa Fe Trail Middle School.
• Stockton USD 271, Stockton Grade School and Stockton High School.
• Twin Valley USD 240, Tescott Elementary School and Bennington Junior-Senior High School.
• Wellington USD 353, Kennedy Elementary School and Wellington High School.

Each district will have one of the seven astronauts from the Mercury spaceflight program as its symbol for the effort.

Asked about the optics of the department’s decision to represent its new program with seven white, male astronauts at a time when schools are trying to close achievement gaps for minority children, present students with more role models of color and encourage girls to pursue science and math careers, Watson said the astronaut metaphor is apt because the Mercury 7 stepped up to a historic challenge.

“What’s important is, just like those seven people didn’t know what they were getting into and Kennedy issued a challenge, the nation responded,” he said. “And that’s what we hope Kansas will do.”

Watson, former superintendent of McPherson schools, emphasized the department and Kansas State Board of Education’s goal of improving outcomes for all students.

“When we say ‘every child,’” he said, “that’s Hispanic, female, male, urban, suburban. It’s everyone.”

Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer also spoke at the launch, congratulating education officials on the initiative.

“Kansas wants to lead the world in the success of each student,” Colyer said, referencing the education department’s stated mission. “I want to say thank you for what all of you do to help lead us in that direction.”

Colyer announced shortly afterward that he will run for governor.

Celia Llopis-Jepsen is a reporter for the Kansas News Service, a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio and KMUW covering health, education and politics. You can reach her on Twitter @Celia_LJ.

SALINE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect in connection with a pair of arson fires.

Just after 2:30 a.m. on July 22, someone started a fire in the backyard of a residence in the 800 block of Sheridan in Salina, according Police Capt. Paul Forrester. He said that an accelerant was used to create a 35-foot-long fire path to the back door of the rental property.

A neighbor called in the fire. The property was unoccupied at the time and there were no reported injuries.

At around 4:30 a.m. July 23, another fire was started at a home in 800 block of Sherman Street.  The residence was also empty and there were no reported injuries. Authorities said they found an accelerant at the second residence.

On August 8, one of the arson victims called authorities after allegedly receiving several harassing text messages. Several of the messages were threatening in nature, according to Forrester.

During the investigation, police executed a search warrant that lead to the arrest of 34-year-old Joshua Edward Allen of Salina.

He is being held for requested charges of criminal in possession of a firearm, stalking, criminal threat and harassment by telephone. Capt. Forrester said he is still a person of interest in the arson investigation.

Authorities searched Allen’s residence on July 23. They found a 12-gauge shotgun and a .22 caliber rifle.

Capt. Forrester said that police later confirmed that Allen had been convicted of aggravated battery in Geary County back in 2009 and he could not legally be in possession of the firearms.

The damage to the from the fires is expected to exceed $10,000.