A charge has been filed after a man was taken to the hospital with a gunshot wound to the leg in May outside of Club Flatline in downtown St. Joseph.

Angel Maisonet-Laboy, 37 was charged Thursday in Buchanan County with a felony for second-degree assault.  Court documents said the charge stems from an incident that took place May 8 around 1:30 a.m. in the 600 block of Felix in which Kraig Buckner sustained a gunshot wound to the upper leg.

“The defendant was engaged in a fight with the victim,” said Detective R. Woodley with the St. Joseph Police Department. “Defendant after fighting with the victim retreated to his vehicle and retrieved a handgun. Defendant returned to the area of the fight and fired two shots.  One of those shots hit the victim in the upper leg.  Defendant then left the area and did not call for any medical assistance for the victim.”

Court documents said Maisonet-Laboy has very few ties to St. Joseph with two children still living in Puerto Rico with his mother.

If convicted the charge of second-degree assault carries a penalty of 2-7 years in prison.

Maisonet-Laboy is being held on $50,000 cash bond.

A St Joseph baseball player executed an unassisted triple play Wednesday night.

Assistant Coach John Perkins of the Pony Express League’s (8-and-under) Cardinals says Stryker Beasley is 7-years-old (correct), and goes into the history books as one of the youngest players ever to put three players out on one pitch without help from his teammates.

An unassisted triple play is rare even for adults, it has only occurred 15 times in Major league Baseball through the year 2010. We found video evidence of two other such plays, one by a 6-year-old, and another, just two months ago, by an 8-year-old Missouri boy.

Perkins says Stryker was playing shortstop.  He caught a line drive for the first out, touched 2nd base to force out one base runner, and then chased down another base runner towards first base for a tag out.

Sadly the Cardinals lost the game by one run in extra innings.

(We caught up with Stryker at Eagle Field #1 and he joined us live on Facebook. We learned that he’s a fan of the St Louis Cardinals, the St Joseph Mustangs and the Kansas City Royals, possibly in that order. The unassisted triple play may qualify Stryker for the St. Joseph Baseball Hall of Fame. When we asked him if he should be inducted he nodded “uh huh!”)

A newspaper carrier was assaulted during an attempted robbery early Thursday morning in St Joseph.

St. Joseph Police Sergeant Brett Kelly says two suspects approached the newspaper carrier in the 2400 block of North Leonard Road and demanded money at about 3:40 a.m. Thursday.

The suspects threatened to shoot him in the face if he didn’t comply.  The victim tried to drive away and was hit in the back of the head with what he believed to be a silver handgun.

The man suffered what was described as a moderate cut to the back of his head and ear and was transported to Mosaic Life Care.

Two suspects fled on foot.  The victim described them as two white males in their 20s.  One wore blue jeans and a dark hoody.  The other had blonded hair and wore light colored pants and no shirt.

If you can help investigators call the TIPS hotline at (816) 238 -TIPS.

States are rushing to stop the spread of a new synthetic drug that’s contributed to at least 50 deaths across the nation.  In St. Joseph, authorities said synthetic drugs are not a new problem.

“There’s a lot of these chemical compounds that are out there that are very similar in chemical make-up with other illicit drugs that are out there,” said Sgt. Larry Stobbs with the St. Joseph Police Department.

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation sent out a warning to the public at the beginning of the month to talk about the use of synthetic opioid U-47700.  Johnson County, Kansas, District Attorney Steve Howe said two deaths in his county have been connected to U-47700. The new synthetic drug can be purchased online and is nearly eight times more potent than morphine. KBI said parents and caregivers should be watchful of packages and mailing labels that indicate a shipment from overseas, particularly China.

“Some of these compounds like this newest drug that’s out has got some tragic consequences because it’s actually killing people,” Stobbs said.

He said the best thing parents can do is to try and make it a point to know what’s going on in their kid’s lives.

“Several years ago there was a little fad in certain communities of kids buying the bonsai plants and were buying the supposedly fertilizer that went on them but it was a ruse,” Stobbs said. “You bought the plant so mom and dad would think you were trying to grow this cute little bonsai plant and actually the stuff they were buying that was being marketed as a fertilizer was actually the stuff they were smoking to get high on and that way mom and dad didn’t know what was going on.”

He said many different types of synthetic opioids are a concern around the St. Joseph community.

“We’ve got a lot of people here in the region that make this stuff and sell it.  They’ve got their sources.  It’s like anything else, if you know somebody that sells marijuana they probably sell this stuff also,” Stobbs said. “This is an ongoing problem we have in our community. It may not be one of our bigger drug problems, we have a lot of marijuana, we still have a lot of meth, we still have other drugs that are starting to pop up in our community this is just one on the smorgasbord that’s out there of the drugs we have.  But unfortunately, this is probably one of the more dangerous ones.”

He said the synthetic drugs could actually be more harmful.

“The first responders and the people at the emergency room in a lot of ways it’s hard for them to figure out what to do with you because they’re not sure how that compound is interacting with your body to help get you back on the right track and help save your life,” Stobbs said. “From a law enforcement standpoint we encourage people to stay away from drugs because we don’t want to have people dying in our community because they’ve overdosed.”

(AP contributed to information in this story)

The City of St Joseph announced a program to help young people who might want to become lifeguards.  The American Red Cross Junior Lifeguarding program enrollment is currently taking place.  

The Junior Lifeguarding course does not certify participants in first aid, CPR or AED, or as a lifeguard, but gives the students the ability to build on their water skills and safety through swim and classroom sessions and job shadowing.

The program will be offered from July 11-15, at the Aquatic Park, for children ages 10-15, to develop a foundation of knowledge, attitudes and skills for future lifeguards.

Participants are not required to master or perfectly execute skills. They will learn techniques and build stamina during this program.

The cost per student is $75, which includes classroom sessions from 9am-1pm, with job shadowing and swimming permitted until the end of the business day, each class day. A certificate of participation will be awarded to each student upon completion of five sessions.

Space is limited, so please enroll today by contacting the Parks, Recreation & Civic Facilities Department administrative office at 271.5500, or enrolling online at stjoeparks.info.  While on the site, you can also find out about swimming lessons for your kids.  Registration is underway.

A total of five people are now charged in connection with the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Skylar Powell last month in St. Joseph.

Tuesday the Buchanan County Prosecutor’s Office charged two additional people in connection with the May 18th death. Kyle Smith, 25 is charged with a felony of possession of a controlled substance (5-15 year sentence range) and a felony for tampering with physical evidence (1-4 year sentence range). Ashten Surritte, 19 is charged with a felony for first-degree attempted robbery (5-15 year sentence range.) Bond for both has been set at $20,000.

According to court documents, the day before Powell was found dead in the 2200 block of Calhoun, Surritte is accused of conspiring to commit robbery by helping Powell plan a robbery of Dayne Matthews by supplying Skylar Powell with Matthews’s phone number and a picture of Matthews.

As we previously reported, Matthews was charged Monday in connection with Powell’s death. Matthews, 19 of St. Joseph was charged with felonies for possession of a controlled substance (5-15 years sentence range) and tampering with physical evidence (1-4 years sentence range).

Court documents said Kyle Smith is accused of giving 1/4 pound of marijuana to Justin Smith with the intent and purpose of resale and distribution.  Court documents also said after the shooting Kyle Smith is accused of taking the handgun used and disposing of it for the purpose of preventing discovery by law enforcement officials.  This allegedly took place in the area of 3513 S. 11th St.

Justin Smith, 20 was charged Monday with felonies for voluntary manslaughter (5-15 years sentence range) and armed criminal action (Minimum of three year sentence range).

A fifth defendant has also been charged in the investigation. A 16-year-old was charged in juvenile court last week with a class A felony for murder in the second-degree.  Because it’s a juvenile case, the court said it is unable to release the teen’s name or picture.  That teen is slated for a hearing for June 22.

Kyle Smith and Surritte appeared Tuesday morning in Buchanan County court for an arraignment.  Both are scheduled for a preliminary hearing June 20 at 11 a.m.  Justin Smith and  Matthews each have a Preliminary for June 27.

Police are searching for a driver involved in a hit and run car crash early Tuesday morning.

According to the St. Joseph Police Department, a vehicle traveling north struck a parked car and then a tree near 10th and Francis Streets. The driver fled the scene and the passenger was transported to the hospital with minor injuries.

Anyone with information regarding this incident can contact the the Tips Hotline at (816) 238-TIPS.