KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – A Missouri police officer who was killed in a shooting that wounded two other officers will be buried next week.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol said in a tweet that the services for Clinton Officer Christopher Ryan Morton will start at 11 a.m. Monday at the Benson Convention Center in Clinton, where a visitation also will be held Sunday. A procession to Knob Noster City Cemetery will follow the funeral.
The patrol says Morton and two other officers were wounded Tuesday after they were sent to the wrong house while responding to a 911 call made from another town. The suspect, James Waters, then barricaded himself inside the home. By the time officers got to Morton hours later, he was dead, along with Waters, who had a long criminal history.
SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a shooting and have suspect in custody.
Police on the scene of Friday morning shooting investigation photo courtesy WIBW TV
Just before 2a.m., police responded to a shooting at an address in the 900 Block of SW Fairlawn in Topeka, according to Lt. Steve Roth.
The male victim was transported to a local hospital in critical condition. Police also located the suspect, Kiren Lashawn Green 27, of Topeka.
Green was later booked into the Shawnee County Department of Corrections for the charge of Attempted First Degree Murder. Anyone with information regarding this incident is encouraged to contact the Topeka Police Dept. Criminal Investigation Bureau at 785-368-9400 or Crime Stoppers at 785-234-0007.
Friday will feel warmer than it has the last few days, especially south of the Missouri River where temperatures will reach into the lower to mid 60s while northern Missouri will see high temperatures in the upper 40 to 50s. Rain chances will start to increase Saturday afternoon with most of the precipitation falling after sunset and east of I-35. Temperatures will remain in the mid 50s Saturday but will drop slightly Sunday into the mid 40s as cloud coverage and rain chances continue over central Missouri. Here’s the 7-day forecast from the National Weather Service:
Today: Sunny, with a high near 57. North northeast wind 5 to 14 mph becoming east southeast in the morning. Winds could gust as high as 18 mph.
Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 29. East northeast wind 6 to 9 mph.
Saturday: A chance of rain after noon. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 54. East wind around 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
Saturday Night: A chance of rain. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 34. East wind 7 to 10 mph becoming north northwest in the evening. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
Sunday: A chance of rain before 9 a.m., then a chance of rain and snow between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m., then a chance of rain after 11 a.m. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 43. North wind 11 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
Sunday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 28.
Monday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 46.
Monday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 26.
Tuesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 50.
Tuesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 27.
Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 55.
Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 34.
ST. LOUIS (AP) – The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the first commercial case of bird flu in the country this year has been confirmed at a turkey farm in southwestern Missouri.
USDA spokeswoman Lyndsay Cole said Thursday that the H7N1 avian influenza, a low-pathogenic form, was detected through pre-slaughter testing on a farm in Jasper County that houses 20,000 turkeys. The state put the farm under quarantine.
Cole says two other commercial poultry properties within 6 miles of the farm tested negative for influenza.
The low-pathogenic flu is different from the high-pathogenic virus that resulted in the loss of nearly 50 million birds in the Midwest in 2015. Cole says the low-pathogenic virus poses no risk to the food chain.
Jasper County is about 140 miles south of Kansas City, Missouri.
KANSAS CITY, KAN. – A federal investigation in Kansas has tied drug traffickers to an international money laundering scheme, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.
Duarte-Tello-photo Wyandotte Co.
In San Diego Thursday, federal prosecutors announced charges against 40 alleged members of an international money-laundering scheme that laundered tens of millions of dollars in drug money from drug dealers in the United States to suppliers in Mexico. Two of those defendants in the California case already were indicted by a grand jury in Kansas after being targets of a federal investigation here. Their case is pending in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan.
“Assistant U.S. Attorney Tris Hunt and his team of investigators in Kansas has been working on this for two years,” McAllister said.
The indictment in California charges Juan Duarte-Tello, 44, Kansas City, Mo., and Diana Aurora Holguin-Gallegos, 30, Kansas City, Mo., with working as money couriers who transported large amounts of cash generated from drug trafficking. The California indictment is part of a nationwide takedown stemming from a multi-year investigation led by the FBI San Diego Cross Border Violence Task Force, IRS Criminal Investigation, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California.
Diana Aurora Holguin-Gallegos
In addition to the indictments unsealed today in San Diego, dozens of other defendants have been charged across the United States with crimes ranging from drug distribution to money laundering stemming from this investigation, including defendants in Kansas, Ohio, Kentucky and Washington.
According to the indictments and other publicly filed court documents, Jose Robert Lopez-Albarran, a significant money broker for a Mexican based international money laundering organization along with other members of the organization, allegedly laundered tens of millions of dollars in narcotics proceeds from the United States to Mexico between 2015 and 2018. As a result of the investigation, law enforcement seized more than $6 million in United States currency.
In the Kansas case, Duarte-Tello and Holguin-Gallegos are awaiting trial on charges of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and other counts including renting a residences in Kansas City, Kan. and Kansas City, Mo. for the purpose of storing and distributing methamphetamine. The Kansas investigation resulted in seizures of more than 44 kilograms of methamphetamine, three kilograms of cocaine and more than $100,000 in cash.
The Drug Enforcement Administration and FBI investigated the case in Kansas. Assistant U.S. Attorney Tris Hunt is prosecuting.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Testimony in the third day of trial that could determine if thousands of Kansans will be allowed to vote centered on a list of questionable voter registrations in one county and discussion of the state’s voting regulations.
Tougher voter registration rules championed by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach are on trial this week. FILE PHOTO / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
The American Civil Liberties Union is challenging a 2013 law that requires documents proving citizenship when registering.
Sedgwick County Elections Commissioner Tabitha Lehman was questioned Thursday about a list of 38 people that she reported to Kobach as being noncitizens who either registered or tried to register to vote in her county.
Lehman acknowledged only five of those on the list compiled since 2004 tried to vote. But she contended the law prevented 15 people from registering who would have been eligible before the law was passed.
HOWELL COUNTY — A Missouri man died in an accident just before 3p.m. Thursday in Howell County.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2003 Dodge Caravan driven by Robert E. Booth, 74, Pottersville, was eastbound on Route K one mile east of Pottersville. The van traveled off the left side of the road and hit a fence.
Booth was pronounced dead at the scene. He was properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the MSHP.
Buchanan County residents have an opportunity to experience what it’s like to work in law enforcement through an upcoming program.
The St. Joseph Police Department and the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office will present an eight-week Citizen’s Academy in April. They have been offering the program for over 10 years.
Sheriff Bill Puett said the Citizen’s Academy exposes community members to various aspects of area law enforcement.
“It introduces people who are interested to see some of the aspects of law enforcement and maybe dispel some of those myths and see some of the actual tools and techniques and those type of things,” Puett said. “For example, we have a SWAT night, they go up and watch the SWAT team… they can do ride-alongs… we do a case presentation. We talk about traffic and we talk about the jail and the court, how there’s all these little nuances of things that people, they see it on TV or they hear about it, but they’re not really exposed to the topic.”
The program takes place Tuesday evenings from 6 to 9:30 p.m. on Tuesdays April 3rd through May 22nd. For more information call (816) 236-1473 or pick up an application at the St. Joseph Police Department lobby. Applications must be returned by March 23rd.
PITTSBURG, Kan. (AP) — A former police officer in southeast Kansas has pleaded no contest to charges of sexually assaulting a woman he arrested during a domestic disturbance.
Jessie Davis, 22, took a plea bargain on Tuesday in Crawford County District Court.
Davis surrendered himself to authorities last year on charges of aggravated sexual battery and official misconduct after a Crawford County Sheriff’s Department investigation. He was later fired from the Pittsburg Police Department.
County attorney John Gutierrez says Davis will likely be placed on probation for two years and will not have to register as a sex offender if the court follows the plea agreement.
The woman who says she was groped in Davis’ patrol car filed a lawsuit last month alleging her civil rights were violated.
