BELTON, Mo. (AP) – Authorities say a Texas man has been shot and wounded in suburban Kansas City after a pursuit in which the man is accused of forcing a driver out of a sport utility vehicle after his own vehicle was disabled.
The chase started Wednesday night in Belton. The Missouri State Highway Patrol says that after the fleeing vehicle was disabled, the 27-year-old Houston man started walking down Interstate 49 and fired a gun at a passing motorist. The patrol says that after carjacking another vehicle, the man sped off into Raymore and stopped in a subdivision.
The patrol says the man was shot after walking away from officers while pointing a gun at his head and then at officers. He was taken to a hospital with serious injuries.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Authorities are investigating a deadly shooting in Kansas City, Kansas, as a possible case of self-defense.
O’Donnell-photo Wyandotte County Sheriff
Jarrod O’Donnell, 48, Tonganoxie, was killed late Saturday. His ex-fiancee, Misty Bartlett, says she was home with a friend and her 8-year-old son when O’Donnell shattered a sliding glass door and attacked her. The friend in the home eventually shot and killed O’Donnell, an act that Bartlett said was in self-defense.
Police Detective Cameron Morgan says initial information in the case points to a self-defense shooting, adding that O’Donnell died from multiple wounds to his abdomen. But he stressed that the investigation is ongoing.
Morgan says he believed O’Donnell had recently moved out of the house.
Another mild day is expected today for much of the region as highs climb into the 60s and 70s south of I-70. A few showers or sprinkles are possible across the area today. A cold front will move through the region this evening and overnight and bring us a reality check as highs fall back into the 20s and 30s for Friday. Here’s the 7-day forecast from the National Weather Service:
Today: Mostly cloudy, with a high near 58. Light and variable wind becoming northwest 5 to 10 mph in the afternoon.
Tonight: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 19. Blustery, with a north northwest wind 10 to 15 mph increasing to 16 to 21 mph in the evening. Winds could gust as high as 30 mph.
Friday: Sunny, with a high near 33. North wind 12 to 17 mph becoming northwest 5 to 10 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 25 mph.
Friday Night: Increasing clouds, with a low around 24. South southeast wind 6 to 9 mph.
Saturday: Mostly cloudy through mid morning, then gradual clearing, with a high near 51. South wind 8 to 14 mph becoming west northwest in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 23 mph.
Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 27.
Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 57.
Sunday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 45.
Washington’s Birthday: A chance of showers after 7 a.m. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 62. Chance of precipitation is 50%.
Monday Night: A chance of rain showers before 10 p.m., then a chance of rain and snow showers between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m., then a chance of snow showers after 11 p.m. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 24. Chance of precipitation is 50%.
Tuesday: A chance of snow showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 33. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
Tuesday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 17.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas father fighting efforts by the U.S. to deport him to Bangladesh was returned Wednesday to Missouri from Honolulu, even as members of Congress push legislation that would make him and his wife lawful permanent residents.
Jamal-photo courtesy the online petition
Syed Ahmed Jamal, 55, was being held Wednesday near Kansas City in the Platte County, Missouri, jail his attorney, Rekha Sharma-Crawford, said on Facebook. The post did not give any other details.
U.S. immigration officials put Jamal on a plane bound for Bangladesh Monday before an immigration panel granted a temporary stay in the case. He was taken off the flight when it stopped to refuel in Honolulu and his attorneys had announced earlier Wednesday that he was returning to the Kansas City area.
Family spokesman Alan Anderson said the hope is that Jamal will be allowed to stay with his wife, 44-year-old Angela Jamal, and three children in Lawrence, Kansas, under an “order of supervision” while the family fights the matter in the courts, which could take months.
Jamal’s return came one day after Republican U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins, whose district includes Lawrence, introduced a bill that would provide for the “relief” of Jamal and his wife, whose legal name is Zaynaub Jahan Chowdhury. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Democrat from Missouri who has also taken up Jamal’s case, helped draft the bill and “fully supports” it, said spokeswoman Heather Frierson.
Jenkins said in a statement that she is “hopeful that an appropriate solution can be reached for a man who has spent 30 years here and is well respected and valued in the Lawrence community.”
Jamal, who has worked as an adjunct professor and researcher at Kansas City-area colleges, has been battling his deportation since Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested him Jan. 24 at his family’s home.
Jamal entered the U.S. legally in 1987 to attend the University of Kansas but overstayed his visa while pursuing a doctorate. He was ordered deported in 2011 but had been allowed to stay in the U.S. and check in regularly with immigration authorities. Sharma-Crawford said Jamal has a work permit that is valid until October and that he was trying to work within what she calls a complicated immigration system.
His wife, who also is from Bangladesh, came to the U.S. in 2002, and there also was an order for her removal several years ago, Frierson said. The couple’s children are U.S. citizens.
Cases such as Jamal’s have been on the rise. Shortly after taking office last year, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that widened the categories of immigrants in the U.S. illegally who could face deportation. The number of arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement surged almost 40 percent from the time of Trump’s inauguration to the end of September, compared with the same time period the year before. ICE has also detained or deported people who had received reprieves from the agency during the Obama administration.
Nikolas Cruz jailed on 17 counts of murder-photo Broward Co. Sheriff
PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) — The Latest on the deadly shooting at a Florida high school (all times local):
Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel says the 19-year-old suspect in the deadly school shooting, Nikolas Cruz, had been expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School for “disciplinary reasons.”
Israel says he doesn’t know the specifics of what happened.
But Victoria Olvera, a 17-year-old junior, says Cruz was expelled last school year after a fight with his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend.
School officials haven’t confirmed such accounts, but say Cruz was attending another school in Florida’s Broward County after his expulsion.
The @FBI has set up a website where you can upload images and video of the #stonemanshooting. Visit https://t.co/7k6vAb5Csa to submit any information you have on the shooting that occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
One 17-year-old junior, Dakota Mutchler, says he used to be friends with Cruz but hadn’t seen him in more than a year after his expulsion. He says of Cruz: “He started progressively getting a little more weird.”
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This story has been corrected show that Dakota’s last name is Mutchler, not Mentcher.
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Florida Gov. Rick Scott has joined law enforcement agents near the site of the deadly school shooting and offered his condolences to the victims’ families and survivors. He says the attack that claimed at least 17 lives “is just absolutely pure evil.”
Scott told reporters Wednesday evening he can’t imagine what the families of the victims are going through. He also said he would be visiting hospitalized survivors.
Sheriff Scott Israel of Broward County also said at the news conference that 12 of the dead have been identified but some weren’t carrying identification and that slowed confirmation efforts. The families are being notified.
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi says the state will cover funeral expenses for the victims and counseling for survivors.
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A law enforcement official says the former student suspected of killing at least 17 people at a South Florida high school posted highly disturbing material on social media before the shooting rampage.
Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said Wednesday the 19-year-old suspect, Nikolas Cruz, had been expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School for unspecified disciplinary reasons.
Israel says investigators are dissecting the suspect’s social media posts and found material that is “very, very disturbing.” He didn’t elaborate.
An ex-schoolmate recalled Cruz posting on Instagram about killing animals and said he talked of doing target practice in his backyard with a pellet gun.
A school superintendent, Robert Runcie, told reporters he didn’t know of any concerns raised about Cruz.
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A student who escaped the deadly shooting at a Florida high school says he knew the suspect when he attended the school, describing him as a “weird kid” and something of a “loner.”
Authorities said 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz is in custody after the attack Wednesday that claimed 17 lives at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. Officials say Cruz was a former student, having been expelled from the school.
Student Daniel Huerfano told The Associated Press he remembers seeing Cruz walking around the school with his lunch bag, adding, “He was that weird kid that you see … like a loner.”
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Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida says he is “devastated and saddened” by the deadly shooting attack on a high school in his state.
The Republican senator says he remains ready to assist state and local officials and “anyone impacted by this horrible tragedy.” He also said in his statement Wednesday that he hopes authorities can find out in coming hours and days more about why and how the killer “carried out this carnage.”
Meanwhile, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz of Florida has also issued condolences. She called the attack in Parkland, Florida, “another senseless school shooting … this time in our community.”
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Former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords says the deadly school shooting in Florida should “strike fear into all Americans.”
The Democrat from Arizona was shot in the head and survived a shooting attack in 2011.
She said in a statement Wednesday that her heart goes out to the victims and survivors of the school shooting that claimed 17 lives in Parkland, Florida. She called it the latest attack in an epidemic of gun violence that continues “days after deadly day.”
She also says in a statement that the latest in a series of deadly U.S. shootings should stir fresh resolve in Congress to “find the courage to pass the laws we need to protect our children.”
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Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida says the shooter in the attack on a high school in his state wore a gas mask and had smoke grenades.
The Florida Democrat said in an interview with CNN that he was briefed on the attack by the FBI.
Nelson says the attacker “set off the fire alarm so the kids would come pouring out of the classrooms into the hall. And there the carnage began.”
Nelson says he did not know if the gunman had used the smoke grenades but he assumed that’s why he had a gas mask on.
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Doctors say 16 people wounded in a deadly shooting at a Florida high school were taken to area hospitals for treatment and two of them have died.
Dr. Evan Boyar at Broward Health North told reporters Wednesday that eight victims and the suspect had been brought to his hospital. Boyar says two victims died, three were in critical condition and three were in stable condition. He says three patients were still in the operating room Wednesday evening. The suspect was treated and released to police.
Boyar says all the victims were shot but declined to comment on their ages or the extent of their wounds.
Eight other victims were taken to other hospitals, but he did not have information on their conditions.
Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel says a 19-year-old former student has been arrested in the shooting that killed 17 people.
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This item has been clarified to note that 16 people were transported to be treated but two of them died.
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Democratic Rep. Ted Deutch of Florida says lawmakers have offered their condolences after the latest school shooting, this one in his district.
Deutch says he found his colleagues’ outreach — in his words — both “heartwarming and obscene.” Authorities say 17 people died in Wednesday’s attack in Parkland, Florida, and the suspect, a 19-year-old former student, is in custody.
The congressman says he uses the word “obscene” because school shootings have become so commonplace that lawmakers were offering him guidance on what to expect in coming days as constituents grapple with the tragedy.
Deutch says it’s time to find ways to save lives. He says he wants President Donald Trump to call those concerned to the White House to “do something” about gun violence.
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A Florida sheriff says that 12 of the 17 confirmed deaths in Wednesday’s shooting attack on a high school were found in the school.
Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel says the attack began outside the school Wednesday afternoon.
He told reporters that authorities subsequently found 12 people dead in the building and two more dead just outside the school and one more in a nearby street. Israel says two other people died later under medical treatment.
Israel says the suspect, a 19-year-old former student of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, is in custody. He says the male suspect was checked out at a hospital after his arrest and is now being held at a secure location in a public building.
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5:20 p.m.
A federal official has identified the Florida school shooting suspect as Nicolas Cruz.
“I’m saddened to say that 17 people lost their lives.”- Sheriff Scott Israel #stonemanshooting
The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The official says he had been briefed on the investigation into the shooting at the South Florida high school, but was not authorized to discuss it publicly.
Authorities in Florida say the shooter opened fire at the school Wednesday afternoon, killing “numerous” people. The shooting sent frightened students running out into the streets and SWAT team members swarming the building.
Authorities later announced that they had taken a former student, about 18 years old, into custody after locating him off the school grounds.
5 p.m.
Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel says the shooting suspect is an 18-year-old former student at the South Florida school where the shooting erupted.
He says the teen was arrested without incident after he was located off the school grounds in a nearby community. He didn’t give details of when the suspect had attended the school. But the sheriffs says the suspect wasn’t currently enrolled.
“It’s catastrophic. There really are no words.” – Sheriff Israel
“I don’t know why he left,” Israel said, briefing reporters Wednesday afternoon.
He also says the shooter was outside and inside the school at points during the attack. He didn’t elaborate.
The sheriff says several SWAT teams have gone in during the afternoon and are clearing every building at the Parkland high school complex to ensure no other threat remains.
He also says the FBI has stepped in and will begin processing what he describes as “horrific scene.”
Said the sheriff: “This is a terrible day … This is catastrophic.”
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4:40 p.m.
Parents described a chaotic and frightening situation as they rushed to find their children in the frantic minutes after reports of a shooting at a South Florida high school began to spread.
Caesar Figueroa says he was one of the first parents to arrive at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. He says he saw police officers bringing out big weapons as they approached the school.
Figueroa’s office is only five minutes from the school where he sends his 16-year-old daughter.
“My wife called me that there was an active shooter and the school was on lockdown. I got on the road and saw helicopters, police with machine guns. It was crazy and my daughter wasn’t answering her phone.”
According to Figueroa, she texted him that she was hidden inside a closet at school with friends: “She was in a classroom and she heard gunshots by the window. She and her friends ran into the closet.”
Another parent, Beth Feingold, says her daughter sent a text at 2:32 p.m. saying “We’re on code red. I’m fine.” But she then sent another text soon afterward saying, “Mom, I’m so scared.” The girl was later able to escape the school unharmed.
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4:25 p.m.
A school official says there are numerous fatalities from the high school shooting in South Florida.
So far we have at least 14 victims. Victims have been and continue to be transported to Broward Health Medical Center and Broward Health North hospital. #StonemanShooting
Broward County Superintendent Robert Runcie says “There are numerous fatalities. It is a horrific situation.” He added, “It is a horrible day for us.”
The Broward County Sheriff’s Office tweeted Wednesday afternoon that “so far we have at least 14 victims.” The tweet added: “Victims have been and continue to be transported to Broward Health Medical Center and Broward Health North hospital.”
The sheriff’s statement didn’t elaborate on the victims or their injuries.
4:10 p.m.
Authorities say the shooter at a South Florida high school is now in custody.
The Broward County Sheriff’s Office gave no details in briefly tweeting that development. It did not identify the shooting suspect nor say how the person was taken into custody.
Television footage showed police putting a person in the back of a police car outside the high school.
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A shooting at a Florida high school Wednesday sent students rushing out into the streets as SWAT team members swarmed in and locked down the building, and police warned that the shooter was still at large. School officials said they had received reports of multiple injuries.
Coral Springs Police said on their Twitter account Wednesday that Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School was locked down and that students and teachers inside should remain barricaded until police reach them.
Police are working an active shooter scene, and ask that if you are in touch with your student you ask that they remain calm and barricaded until police come to their room, this is for everyone’s safety. Do NOT call our 911 or non-emergency number unless it is an emergency.
Len Murray’s 17-year-old son, a junior at the school, sent his parents a chilling text around 2:30pm: “Mom and Dad, there have been shots fired on campus at school. There are police sirens outside. I’m in the auditorium and the doors are locked.”
A few minutes later, he texted again: “I’m fine.”
Ambulances converged in front of the school, and TV news broadcasts showed at least one person being wheeled to an ambulance on a gurney. Live footage also showed emergency workers appearing to treat possibly wounded people on the sidewalks. It wasn’t immediately clear how many were wounded. The Broward County Sheriff’s Office tweeted that the shooter was still at large even as the evacuation was underway.
Television footage showed police in olive fatigues, with weapons drawn, entering the school, then dozens of children frantically running and walking quickly out. A police officer waved the students on, urging them to quickly evacuate. Some students exited the building in single-file rows with hands raised overhead to show they carried no weapons. Others held onto other students as they made their way out past helmeted police in camouflage with weapons drawn.
The Broward Schools department said on its website that it had received reports of “possible multiple injuries” and was dismissing students. The department said students and staff heard what sounded like gunfire and the school immediately went on lockdown.
Murray said he raced to the school only to be stopped by authorities under a highway overpass within view of the school buildings. He said he told his son to save his battery and stop texting, while the boy’s mother told him to turn off his ringer.
No information has been provided yet to parents, he said. “I’m scared for the other parents here. You can see the concern in everybody’s faces. Everybody is asking, ‘Have you heard from your child yet?'” Murray said.
Murray said he’s had just one thought running through his mind since he got his son’s text: “All I keep thinking about is when I dropped him off this morning – I usually say, ‘I love you,’ and I didn’t think morning. He’s 17, he’s at that age, and I didn’t say it this morning, and I’m just kicking myself right now over and over and over. Say it early and often, I’m telling you.”
The high school is a sprawling complex set on a tract in the South Florida community of Parkland, about 45 miles (70 kilometers) north of downtown Miami.
The school had just over 3,100 students in the 2016-2017 academic year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Major streets run along two sides and an expressway passes nearby on the other not far from a residential neighborhood of single family homes.
DOUGLAS COUNTY —Sheriff’s authorities say officers found an assault rifle and more than 1,300 rounds of ammunition in a car after a chase in Lawrence.
Douglas County Sheriff’s Sgt. Kirsten Channel says the chase began early Wednesday when a sheriff’s deputy stopped a car in Lawrence for a traffic violation. He called for backup after seeing an AR-15 rifle in the car, and the suspect drove off. The car eventually was stopped. Officials say a search uncovered the rifle, ammunition and drugs.
The 26-year-old driver identified as Vince Wyatt from Kansas City, Kansas, was scheduled to appear before a judge Wednesday.
Wyatt is on parole, with previous convictions including seven felony burglaries in Leavenworth County.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Members of the Missouri House Budget Committee are questioning some of Gov. Eric Greitens proposed office budget.
The Springfield News-Leader reports Greitens’ chief of staff, Mike Roche, answered questions Tuesday from the committee about the budget.
The budget includes $110,000 for a director of communications jobs, although the governor has a press secretary and a deputy press secretary. Roche says the $110,000 set aside for that job shouldn’t be trimmed from the budget because it would reduce the money the governor’s office has to spend on “professional services.”
Press secretary Parker Briden declined to discuss possible duties for a communications director.
Briden confirmed that a deputy press secretary, Amy Lutz, started working with the governor’s office about three weeks ago, and her job was to help Briden field reporters’ questions.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — The family of a female student who was beaten up outside Olathe North High School by two school employees has settled its lawsuit against the school district.
The Kansas City Star reports a lawsuit filed last year in federal court indicates the student was beaten in February 2016 outside the school.
According to the lawsuit, the victim, identified as Jane Doe T, had been threatened by another girl whose mother worked at the school.
She was outside the school with her brother when began fighting with the other girl and two female school employees.
The two employees were fired and were later found guilty in Johnson County of battery. They were placed on probation.
The details of the settlement are confidential because the girl is a minor.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Missouri’s sexual education curriculum would be expanded to include consent and sexual violence discussions under proposed legislation.
The Columbia Missourian reports that the House Children and Families Committee heard more than an hour of testimony Tuesday from 13 people in support of the bill. At least three members of the committee expressed strong support for the bill.
A group called the Associated Students of the University of Missouri lobbies for students in the four-campus system and reached out to Republican Rep. Holly Rehder, of Sikeston, to introduce the bill. The group’s legislative director, Chelsea Spence, says the consent education is important because there are perpetrators on campuses who “don’t know that they are a problem.”
Sean Whiting of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Missouri says the state “needs to do more.”
If you’ve got solar panels on your roof, Westar Energy wants to create a surcharge on your power bill.
Westar Energy wants to add a special surcharge to the bills of customers who draw in their own solar power. The utility says that otherwise customers without solar panels will end up paying more. PHOTO COURTESY CROMWELL SOLAR
The utility insists that if it doesn’t charge you extra, all of its other customers will get stuck with the tab of being ready with electricity when the sun lets you down.
Solar power enthusiasts want the Kansas Legislature to outlaw such charges, fees they say could stymie their industry’s growth.
The resulting conflict could determine the future of solar power in Kansas and how the cost of keeping the electrical grid working will be split among consumers in the state.
For the utility, offering electricity on demand to a home that pulls most of its power from solar rays is a money-losing proposition. So it’s asking the Kansas Corporation Commission for the go-ahead on a new charge to customers for the service of offering stand-by electricity.
The new charge would come on top of the cost per kilowatt hour and the standard service fees that show up on power bills for all utility customers. Westar estimatesthe new charge could increase the bill of a customer with solar panels by as much as 50 percent.
In an attempt to prevent that move, solar energy advocates have proposed a bill in the Kansas Legislature that would require utilities to charge all residential customers the same rate.
Aron Cromwell is the owner of one of the largest solar retailers in Kansas. On Monday, he told members of the Senate Utility Committee that without the bill, the industry won’t be able to grow.
“The utilities will establish new solar rates that are designed to remove the financial benefit from producing your own energy on your own property,” he said.
The solar industry in Kansas employs about 500 people and is relatively small when compared to neighboring states such as Colorado, which has about 6,000 workers in the field.
Westar says that without an additional charge, the vast majority of customers — those who don’t produce any of their own electricity — will end up subsidizing the cost of solar.
“What we want to ensure is that when customers do make that choice that they are paying their fare share of the cost of the electric grid,” said Westar vice president of regulated affairs, Jeff Martin.
He said the problem for the utility is that the amount of electricity any individual solar power user produces is unreliable — sometimes it’s more than they need, and sometimes it’s less. Regardless, he said Westar must be able to provide enough electricity to meet that customer’s needs at all times, even if the customer doesn’t end up using it.
Westar’s request is part of a larger rate change case before the Kansas Corporation Commission. The rate case also includes a request to increase the standard service fee for all customers by $4, increasing the monthly charge to $18.50 a month. The KCC will make a decision on whether to approve the new rates and rate structure in September.
