KANSAS CITY  – A  Kansas man was charged in federal court Wednesday with stealing dozens of firearms from an Independence, Mo., gun store, according to the United States Attorney.

Keyon D. Johnson, 21, was charged in a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Mo., with one count of stealing firearms from a federal licensee and one count of transporting stolen firearms across state lines. Johnson remains in federal custody pending a detention hearing on Aug. 20, 2018.

According to an affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint, Johnson stole 64 firearms from Armory KC, 10531 E. US 40 Hwy. in Independence. The firearms were stolen during a break-in at the business that occurred about 1:50 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 9, 2018.

The store’s video surveillance shows a group of thieves smashing out the glass on the front door of the business, the affidavit says, then attaching a chain to the front door of the business and to the rear of a pickup truck in order to rip the door off. The thieves entered the store and used hammers to break the glass on the display cases, then placed the firearms in bags.

A cooperating source identified Johnson as one of the thieves, according to the affidavit. On Monday, Aug. 13, 2018, investigators located a vehicle connected to the theft and attempted to conduct a traffic stop in the area of 27th Street and Parallel Parkway. The vehicle fled the area and was later found parked in a driveway. An officer saw two persons flee the area on foot and run into a wooded area. Additional officers responded to the area to assist and located Johnson, who was placed under arrest.

Officers located a Glock 9mm handgun laying near where Johnson was arrested. It was determined that the firearm had been among those stolen from Armory KC. Investigators searched Johnson’s apartment and found eight additional firearms, all of which had been stolen during the Aug. 9, 2018, burglary of Armory KC.

The charges contained in this complaint are simply accusations, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charges must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.

JOHNSON COUNTY  — Authorities have released the name of the man who died in a wrong-way crash just after 4a.m. Wednesday in Johnson County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2001 Ford F150 driven by Tyler S. Burrows, 29, Lenexa, was parked on the shoulder of Interstate 435 at 79^th Street in Lenexa.

The vehicle traveled northbound into the southbound lanes of traffic and struck a 2016 Freightliner semi head-on.

Burrows was pronounced dead at the scene. The semi driver Jared M. Fizer, 31, Harrisonville, Missouri, was not transported to treatment.

Debris from the collision hit a 2012 Nissan Altima driven by Najma M. Warsame, 19, Olathe. She was not injured.

All three drivers were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) – A jetliner taking off narrowly missed hitting an airport van that crossed a runway to go to an employee barbecue.

The Envoy Air jet, with 50 passengers and 3 crew members aboard, was taking off on June 27 from Missouri’s Springfield-Branson National Airport. Video shows the van cleared the jet’s path with seconds to spare.

A report shows the van’s driver said he decided to cross the runway to make the barbeque in time. He said a ground controller had cleared him to cross Runway 14, but halfway across he saw the plane coming down the runway.

The airport on Wednesday issued a statement that an internal review is underway and the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A former Missouri state trooper who was driving a boat when a handcuffed Iowa man fell out and drowned is suing to get his peace officers’ license back.

Anthony Piercy filed a lawsuit this week against the Missouri Department of Public Safety and the agency’s director. The Kansas City Star reports he’s asking for a reversal of the decision that revoked his license.

Piercy was sentenced in September for misdemeanor negligent operation of a vehicle after the drowning of 20-year-old Brandon Ellingson, of Clive, Iowa.

Piercy lost his patrol job. But earlier this summer, a Cole County judge ruled that the patrol’s leader didn’t have the authority to fire Piercy.

Piercy cannot return to the patrol without his peace officer license.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – A Springfield, Mo., man was indicted by a federal grand jury Tuesday for making a bomb threat at the Veterans Affairs Clinic in Mount Vernon, Mo.

Richard Leslie Turner III, 48, was charged in an indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Springfield. Today’s indictment replaces a federal criminal complaint that was filed against Turner on July 19, 2018.

The federal indictment alleges that Turner threatened on July 13, 2018, to blow up the Community Based Outpatient Clinic located at 600 N. Main St. in Mount Vernon.

According to an affidavit filed in support of the original criminal complaint, Turner arrived at the clinic on July 13, 2018, for an appointment but was told the appointment had been changed. Turner became angry and left the clinic, the affidavit says, then shortly afterward another patient informed a staff member that Turner was in the parking lot making statements about obtaining explosives and blowing up the clinic. When Turner was contacted by authorities about making the threats, he allegedly became angry and stated that he really intended to blow up the clinic because the police had called him.

On July 17, 2018, Turner allegedly called the clinic and told a staff member that he intended to travel to the clinic and kill him.

The charge contained in this indictment is an accusation, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charge must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — Two nurse midwives are trying to overturn a Kansas law prohibiting them from practicing without physician oversight after they lost the ability to deliver babies at a hospital.

Kara Winkler and Julie Gorenc have filed a federal lawsuit saying that requiring nurse practitioners to practice under a physician is unfair because doctors have a financial interest.

“They’re what we call a market competitor,” said Keith Williston, an attorney for the midwives. “They both want to treat the same patients.”

Winkler and Gorenc are part of Midwife Partners in Women’s Wellness in Lenexa. The women allege they lost 25 clients who were planning to give birth at Shawnee Mission Medical Center after Dr. Janetta Proverbs ended her collaborative practice agreement with them. No other Shawnee Mission laborists would take them on. Laborists are hospital-employed physicians who deliver babies for women who don’t have a regular OBGYN.

Proverbs has called the allegations “unfounded.”

“If they didn’t like the rules and didn’t want to follow the rules they shouldn’t have joined the hospital,” she said. “The hospital did not treat them any differently than any other provider that has hospital privileges at Shawnee Mission.”

Proverbs declined to say why she ended her agreement with Winkler and Gorenc.

Kansas is one of 19 states requiring nurse midwives to sign such agreements with physicians. State-certified nurse midwives in Kansas pressed for legislation in 2015 and 2016 that would allow them to practice independently of doctors. After a lobbying group for Kansas doctors opposed such a bill, a compromise allowed midwives to practice independently only if they get a medical license from the state’s nursing board and from the board that regulates doctors.

Williston said such a law leaves midwives at the mercy of doctors who can restrict their practicing unless they give physicians a portion of the revenue.

“(Midwives) really don’t have a choice,” Williston said. “They have to accept whatever terms are put in there.”

The defendants listed in the lawsuit include the president of the Kansas State Board of Nursing, Proverbs, four laborists and Adventist Health Mid-America, which is the parent organization of Shawnee Mission.

ST. LOUIS (AP) – A special prosecutor has been appointed to investigate allegations that a lawyer for the ex-husband of the woman who had an affair with former Gov. Eric Greitens violated a gag order.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that St. Louis Circuit Judge Rex Burlison said Tuesday that the prosecutor will investigate a “charge of indirect criminal contempt” against Albert Watkins.

In June, Burlison threatened to fine or jail Watkins over a news release and a 20-minute impromptu April news conference after leaving a hearing at which a lawyer for Greitens revealed that Watkins had received two $50,000 cash payments. Burlison says Watkins may have violated a gag order in the invasion of privacy case against Greitens, which was later dismissed.

Watkins says he’s “respectful of the court’s decision.”

GREENE COUNTY— One person died in an accident just before 4a.m. Wednesday in Greene County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2007 Peterbilt semi driven by Cecil A. Snyder, 56, Conway, was northbound on Missouri 13 at Route WW four miles north of Springfield in the driving lane.

The semi struck William L. Hawkins, 49, Brighton, who stepped onto the highway.  Hawkins was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to the Greene County Medical Examiner’s office.   Snyder was not injured.

OTTAWA, Kan. (AP) — Officials say a guard at a northeast Kansas juvenile detention facility has been placed on leave after a teen was injured so severely that his mother said he required emergency brain surgery.

Franklin County juvenile services director Ken Halliburton told The Associated Press that the Kansas Bureau of Investigation was asked to investigate after the juvenile was rushed to a hospital Saturday morning. The KBI said in a statement that the juvenile sustained critical injuries Friday at the county’s juvenile detention center.

The juvenile wasn’t identified. But KCTV reports that Jennifer Davis says a guard slammed her 15-year-old’s son to the ground, leaving the boy with a skull fracture, bruises and cuts.

Halliburton says the county is “cooperating fully” and “awaiting the outcome of the investigation.” The guard isn’t charged.