NORTON COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect who allegedly hit an officer with a vehicle during an arrest.

Just after 1p.m. Tuesday, the Norton County Sheriff’s Office, with the cooperation of the Norton City Police Department, attempted the arrest of a suspect identified as Dawson Stevens for the sale and distribution of illegal drugs near Almena, Kansas, according to a social media report.

After the initial stop, the suspect refused to follow the officer’s commands and left the scene at a high rate of speed after striking an officer with his vehicle.

Investigating officers pursued Stevens to the southeast portion of Norton County, where he was placed under arrest and transported to the Norton County Sheriff’s Office where he was lodged in jail pending formal charging.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A man has been sentenced to two years and three months in prison for putting a gun to the head of a woman at a Topeka day care center where seven small children were present and saying he was going to kill her.

Debra Zollicoffee described Myles Stanford as a “monster” at his sentencing hearing Monday. Stanford also faces 12 months of supervised release after pleading guilty to aggravated assault in the October 2017 incident at Nanny’s Daycare Center in southeast Topeka.

Prosecutors say the children who were present ranged in age from 13 months to 3 years. One child was a son Sanford has with his girlfriend, who is related to Zollicoffee.

Stanford’s public defender, Heather Nelson, says tensions were “really high” that day.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Board of Regents is seeking $25 million from state lawmakers to fund a financial aid program for college students.

The board’s budget request is part of a plan to funnel up to $50 million into need-based financial aid for Kansas students enrolling in technical schools and universities. The financial aid would also be available for private schools that aren’t part of the Regents system.

Qualifying students could receive up to $5,000 each.

Elaine Frisbie is the board’s vice president of finance and administration. She says state funding would be matched with private donations through university endowments or foundations.

Frisbie says lawmakers would consider the $25 million request in the next legislative session but it wouldn’t begin until fiscal year 2021, if approved.

FORD COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect in connection with a vehicle theft and child abduction.

Just before 4p.m. Tuesday, police were flagged down by the owners of a vehicle that had just been stolen from the Taco Jalisco parking lot in the 400 Block of East Wyatt Earp Boulevard in Dodge City, according to police.

Officers were informed that the vehicle had a 3-month-old baby inside. All available law enforcement including Dodge City PD, Ford County Sheriff’s Office and the Kansas Hwy Patrol flooded the area of last known direction of travel.

By 4:11pm a police unit located the vehicle abandoned with the child inside. EMS was requested to respond and check out the child and she was medically cleared and returned to her mother.

The suspect fled the scene but was apprehended just after 6p.m.
He was described as a Hispanic male, bald, wearing a long sleeve dark colored shirt with white pants.

Witnesses also noted he had spoken with some in Spanish at one point. The suspect was traced to the Flying J in Dodge City where he had been seen.

Police did not release the suspect’s name.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a man who thought he and a child were playing with toy guns accidentally shot another man in a Wichita home.

Wichita police initially said a child had fired the gun.

But on Tuesday afternoon officer Charlie Davidson said a 24-year-old man accidentally fired a shot that hit another man in the leg.
The Wichita Eagle reports several people were eating together Monday night at the home. Davidson said a 5-year-old boy was playing with guns when the 24-year-old started playing with him. Davidson said the man switched guns with the child and thought the gun he had was a toy. The man fired, hitting a 35-year-old man. The victim was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
No one else was injured.

———-
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a child has shot and wounded a man with a handgun that was left next to a pile of toy guns at a Wichita home.

Several friends and family were dining together Monday night when the child started playing with the handgun and a toy gun. Wichita police Sgt. Robert Henning says a man in his 20s who was sitting next to the child was hit by one round.

A dispatch supervisor says the victim was taken to a hospital in critical condition. Henning says it’s “lucky” the boy wasn’t shot. Police didn’t provide his exact age, saying only that he is younger than 10.

Police say the gun was legally owned and that there doesn’t appear to be any criminal activity.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Two Kansas men have reached plea deals in a deadly southwest Missouri robbery.

21-year-old Brock Robinson and 20-year-old Azaiah Forester agreed to testify against a third man, Erik Jones, as part of the murder plea.

The plea deal says Taven Williams was killed in January 2017 when he attempted to stop the three Columbus, Kansas, men from robbing another man in Joplin, Missouri. The target of the robbery was wounded.

No one was arrested until two months later when Joplin police stopped a pickup truck that Robinson owned and Jones was driving. Jones was cited with driving while intoxicated, and the officer found a handgun in the truck that matched the serial number of a gun stolen from the home where Williams was killed.

WICHITA– A convicted Kansas felon was charged Tuesday in federal court with unlawful possession of a firearm, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.

Documents filed with the court said the defendant was identified during an investigation of the murder of Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Deputy Robert Kunze.

Justin Mashaney, 29, Wichita, is charged with one count of unlawful possession of a firearm following a felony conviction. According to an affidavit filed in the case, law enforcement officers were investigating Kunze’s murder by Cody Greeson when they learned Mashaney recently had been committing crimes with Greeson.

Greeson and Kunze died Sept. 16 in an exchange of fire.

On Sept. 23, investigators went to a residence in the 500 block of South All Hallows to find Mashaney. In a truck registered to Mashaney they found a rifle and a 9 mm handgun. In 2015, Mashaney was convicted of burglary and sentenced to 20 months in jail.

If convicted, Mashaney faces up to 10 years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000. The Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Debra Barnett is prosecuting.