COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) – A man accused in a New Year’s Day altercation that ended with a Columbia security guard fatally shooting another person has been arrested.
Columbia police said in a statement that 29-year-old Matthew Callier McMillan was taken into custody Saturday in Kansas City. The Columbia Missourian reports that McMillan is charged with second-degree murder, armed criminal action and first-degree assault in the death of 30-year-old Anthony Desean Warren. Bond is set at $1 million.
Court records say he tussled with an unidentified 26-year-old man over a gun in a Waffle House restaurant. During the tussle, the gun had gone off, striking the 26-year-old in the leg.
The guard arrived to break up the fight and told police he shot Warren because he “felt threatened.” The guard hasn’t been charged.
Police are searching for a suspect after a woman was injured during a robbery at a South Belt business Friday night.
According to St. Joseph Police, around 9:30 p.m., a woman was closing up the Dollar Tree at 3202 South Belt Highway, when a man grabbed her purse, pulling her to the ground. She was hit in the face and the man took a firearm and wallet from the woman and fled on foot.
The suspect was described as being a light skinned black male wearing a blue hoodie with black stitching on it and jeans.
Anyone with information can call the TIPS Hotline at (816) 238-TIPS.
A cold front will continue to usher in cooler air today, with temperatures steady or slowly falling through the day. Rain will return to most areas later this morning into the afternoon. A wintry mix will be possible late this afternoon, especially across northwest Missouri. Little to no snowfall accumulation is expected. Here’s the 7-day forecast from the National Weather Service:
Today: Rain showers before 5 p.m., then rain likely, possibly mixed with snow showers. Temperature falling to around 36 by 5 p.m. Breezy, with a west wind 7 to 12 mph increasing to 17 to 22 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 32 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. Little or no snow accumulation expected.
Tonight: A chance of rain and snow showers before 10 p.m., then a chance of snow showers between 10 p.m. and midnight. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 26. Blustery, with a northwest wind 14 to 23 mph, with gusts as high as 36 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
Tuesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 38. Northwest wind 7 to 13 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph.
Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 24. West northwest wind around 6 mph.
Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 46. West wind 5 to 7 mph becoming south in the afternoon.
Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 30.
Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 55.
Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 39.
Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 55.
Friday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 32.
Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 43.
Saturday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 22.
BROWN COUNTY — Two northeast Kansas teens were injured in an accident just before 9p.m. Sunday in Brown County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan driven by Jolanda Muriel Simon, 17, Horton, was northbound on Grasshopper Road just south of Powhattan.
After exiting a curve, the driver lost control of the van. It left the roadway. traveled into a field and overturned.
Simon and a passenger Jaiden Simon, 13, Horton, were transported to the hospital in Hiawatha.
A third passenger 15-year-old Mahaley Simon was transported but not injured. All three were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.
Law enforcement authorities on the scene of the weekend fatal shooting-photo by Grady Reid courtesy KCTV
JOHNSON COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal weekend officer-involved shooting and have identified a teen who died.
On Saturday, police responded to the 9300 block of W.149th Terrace in Overland Park reference a welfare check of a reported suicidal person, according to a media release. As the responding officers approached the residence to make contact, the garage door opened and a vehicle exited the garage, moving rapidly toward one of the responding officers. The officer discharged his service weapon striking the driver. The driver later identified as 17-year-old John Albers died at the scene.
The Johnson County Officer Involved Shooting Investigation Team (OISIT) in conducting the investigation. The officers were uninjured and the officer involved was placed on administrative leave pending the investigation.
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – A North Carolina man has been convicted of the sexual exploitation of a child in Joplin, Mo., according to Timothy A. Garrison, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri.
David Lee Perkins, 33, of Winston-Salem, N.C., was found guilty following a two-day bench trial before U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool that concluded on Jan. 9, 2018. The court’s findings of fact, conclusions of law and adjudication of guilt was released on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018.
The court found that Perkins crossed state lines into Missouri with the intent to engage in a sexual act with a child victim under the age of 12, identified in court documents as Jane Doe, from April 16, 2014, to Dec. 11, 2016.
Additionally, Perkins had already pleaded guilty on Jan. 3, 2018, to two additional counts contained in the federal indictment. Perkins admitted that he used the victim to produce child pornography and that he distributed child pornography.
Joplin police officers were dispatched to a local hotel where Perkins was staying on Dec. 11, 2016. A female acquaintance of Perkins told officers that she found several videos on an iPad of Perkins engaged in sexually explicit conduct with Jane Doe. Officers contacted Perkins in his hotel room and placed him under arrest.
Perkins told investigators he used his iPad and iPhone to photograph and create videos of the sexually explicit conduct he engaged in with Jane Doe in various hotels and motels in Joplin. Investigators found three video files on Perkins’s iPad. Perkins shared those images and videos of child pornography with at least one other person by attaching them to text messages.
Under federal statutes, Perkins is subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years in federal prison without parole, up to a sentence of life in federal prison without parole. The maximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes, as the sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. Sentencing hearings will be scheduled after the completion of presentence investigations by the United States Probation Office.
Police on the scene of Saturday evening shooting investigation photo courtesy WIBW TV
SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a shooting and asking the public for help to identify possible suspects.
Just before 7 pm Saturday, Police responded to NW St John and NW Central in Topeka for a report of shots fired, according to Lt. Aaron Jones.
One caller reported seeing a person down. Officers arrived to find a 49-year-old male suffering from what appeared to be two non-life- threatening gunshot wounds to his leg. The victim was transported via American Medical Response to a local hospital.
Officers have located six rifle caliber casings near the man. Witnesses report seeing a white late 90’s to early 2000’s large American made SUV leaving the area northbound. Police did not released the victim’s name.
Anyone with information on the incident is asked to contact Topeka police.
Columba Herrera worked to pay tuition for college courses she took while at Topeka West High School. A proposal from the Brownback administration would cover tuition for college classes taken by high school students. CELIA LLOPIS-JEPSEN / KANSAS NEWS SERVICE
ByCELIA LLOPIS-JEPSEN
When 18-year-old Columba Herrera walks across the graduation stage this May, she’ll leave Topeka Public Schools with two things — a high school diploma and the beginnings of her college transcript.
Herrera will have a semester’s worth of college credit — courses offered at Topeka West High School in conjunction with Washburn University.
Each freshman-level college class that the aspiring computer science major knocks out of the way while in high school gets her closer to her goal.
“That way,” she said, “I can actually get into the classes that are specific for my major.”
Herrera paid for those classes by working at a hospital. Even with the discount Topeka West students enjoy, Washburn tuition costs $141 per credit hour. At that rate, 15 credit hours — a typical semester — adds up to $2,115.
For future students, Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer wants the state to pick up the tab. He is calling for 15 credit hours of free college classes for high-school students who want them.
That would expand a 2012 program that already lets Kansas high school students study at technical colleges on the state’s dime.
“Those kids that take dual-credit hours, they’re more likely to attend college,” Colyer said Friday. “Helping them get launched is really important.”
Colyer — the front-runner in fundraising for the governor’s race — threw his weight behind the agenda of Kansas’ state education agency.
Among the board’s goals is easing the jump from high school to higher education.
“This will contribute greatly to Kansas meeting its post-secondary goals,” education commissioner Randy Watson said in an email about the proposal.
State education officials broadly want more Kansans to get something beyond a high school diploma — in large part to ready them for a changing job market. The state lags behind its own goals on that front.
So to speed that progress, there’s a push to start that post-high school work in high school. The Brownback/Colyer plan shoots for 75 percent of high school students pursuing post-secondary studies by 2023.
About 44 percent of the class of 2015 did.
Blake Flanders, president of the Kansas Board of Regents, which oversees state universities, said higher education officials believe increasing dual-enrollment could remove barriers to college for students whose parents didn’t attend. Likewise, it could build confidence for students who doubt their academic abilities.
“Some students may not believe college is in their future,” Flanders said, “Then they take a course in high school. They’re successful. And see that they can actually do it.”
Success of the program would depend on long-term funding, expanding course offerings and making sure high school students who enroll are ready to tackle college-level work.
“What we’ve seen is more of a rough outline,” Flanders said. “We want to learn more.”
Educators are concerned that five years after its inception, the existing 2012 initiative that grants tuition-free access to technical colleges is underfunded by several million dollars a year. That development reflects the state’s revenue woes of recent years, which hit as the number of high school students participating tripled to more than 11,000 this year.
It’s unclear how much the college credit proposal would cost because it’s unknown how many students would take the state up on its offer.
Access to dual-credit classes varies by school. Topeka West gradually built up to the 47 credit hours now available to its students. Doing so required faculty with advanced credentials and approval for teaching each course to college-level specifications.
“I’d be a little curious about what plans there are to help with credentials for teachers to be able to do that,” Topeka West principal Dustin Dick said.
But if logistics can be resolved and the Kansas Legislature proceeds, Dick is convinced more of his students will sign up for dual-credit. Topeka West students clocked 314 credit hours last semester alone — $44,274 in tuition.
Herrera, the Topeka West senior, hopes students like her younger sister, Kate, can dodge the tuition fees she faced. Columba Herrera had to work a job 20 hours a week on top of her course work. If tuition were free, she said, students could just focus on their studies.
“Not only would it benefit them financially,” she said. “I feel like it would also not stress them out as much.”
The 17th Annual Super Science Saturday will offer hands-on experiences for students to learn about math and science.
St. Joseph Museums Public Relations Officer Kathy Reno said something new this year will be the opportunity to make an unusual non-Newtonian fluid called “oobleck.”
“There’s going to teach the students how to make it and they’re going to teach the children the chemistry behind it,” Reno said. “This came about in such a fun way. There are four Central High School senior students and they’re working on their International Baccalaureate Diploma. As part of that, they have to show community service in a creative way, so this is a project they pitched to us and we thought it was a terrific idea.”
Science instructor Rich Piper of Union Star High School will have a variety of interactive experiments and and make-it and take-it science projects. Other activities will include a room-size “Math Maze,” ongoing and interactive experiments presented by Missouri Western State University Chemistry professors, shows in Bushman Planetarium and Casey’s Creatures.
Reno said the activities are geared toward third, fourth and fifth grade students.
“When we started 17 years ago, we decided third, fourth and fifth was the audience we really wanted to get excited about math and science and get them thinking about it in terms of studying it throughout their lives and possibly even seeing it as a career option,” Reno said.
Super Science Saturday takes place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, January 27th at the Remington/Agenstein Hall on the Missouri Western State University campus. The cost is $3 for students and adults. Parking is free.
For more information, call (816) 232-8471 or click here.
SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating two suspects in connection with an aggravated robbery.
Just after 2p.m. Friday, police responded to report of a disturbance in the 300 Block NW St John Street in Topeka, according to Lt. Colleen Stuart.
Officers contacted two individuals in a gray 4-door vehicle. A firearm was located in the vehicle and after being provided false identifying information, both individuals were taken to the Law Enforcement Center for further interviews.
Kurtis Schwanz, 40, was transported to the Department of Corrections on charges of Felon in possession of a firearm, felony obstruction and drug charges.
Hunter Hosler, 23, was transported to the Department of Corrections on charges related to a Dec. 20th aggravated robbery in the 3800 Block South Topeka Blvd.
Schwanz has ten previous convictions for drugs, theft, flee/attempt to elude, obstruction, assault of a law enforcement officer, forgery and more. according to the Kansas Department of Corrections.
