MIAMI COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a hit and run accident and have a suspect in custody.

Just after 4:30p.m. Tuesday, a 12-year-old boy was struck by a dark colored SUV, according to a media release from Paola police. The vehicle with front end damage on the passenger side was also leaking fluid was believed to be heading south on Pearl Street near El Potro restaurant and struck the child near Grandview Street.

The vehicle fled the scene. The 12-year-old was transported to Overland  Park Regional Medical Center for treatment of unknown injuries. Late Tuesday, police reported they had a suspect in custody. They have not released any names or the condition of the injured boy.

Any one with information is encouraged to contact the Paola Police Department at 913-259-3640.

POTOSI, Mo. (AP) – A Missouri police officer is facing several felony charges alleging an ongoing sexual relationship with girl who was 14 when their encounters began.

29-year-old Quntazi Jones is an officer with the Potosi Police Department. He was charged Oct. 5 with four counts of statutory rape and three counts of statutory sodomy.

His defense attorney, Sarah Jackson, declined on Tuesday to comment on the case.

A probable cause statement alleges the Missouri State Highway Patrol was requested to conduct the investigation into allegations the officer had a relationship with the teenager. The girl told a trooper she had sex with Jones more than 20 times, beginning in April 2017.

Investigators found lewd pictures the two exchanged on the officer’s cellphone.

KANSAS CITY (AP) – Kansas City police have two suspects in custody after swarming the Country Club Plaza following a report of a shooting.

Officers were searching parking garages on the Country Club Plaza for an armed suspect after reports shortly before noon Tuesday of shots fired into a car outside a restaurant.

Authorities had put parking garages in the area on lockdown while several police officers with rifles were searching them after several men believed to be involved in the shooting ran into them.

So that’s an all-clear @ThePlazaKC. Thanks for your cooperation, everyone, and we’re so glad no one was hurt. Investigation into the incident will continue.

— Kansas City Police (@kcpolice) October 16, 2018

Shots fired on @ThePlazaKC. No one was injured, and one subject of interest is in custody. Officers are around the area, and we ask you to avoid the Country Club Plaza if possible at this time. We have it pretty locked down.

— Kansas City Police (@kcpolice) October 16, 2018

Police announced about 3 p.m. that they had the suspects in custody and were not looking for anyone else.

No injuries were reported.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Missouri vehicle owners will be getting new red, white and blue license plates to commemorate the state’s upcoming bicentennial.

The new plates will be distributed as people renew their licenses over the next couple of years. The goal is to have them all in place before the state’s 200th anniversary in 2021.

The new design has a white background with dark blue letters and numbers. Missouri’s prominent rivers are represented by red wavy lines on top and blue wavy lines on bottom. The state seal is in the middle.

It replaces a bluebird design that has been used since 2008.

The new plates cost the state about $17 million. That cost will be recouped by charging people extra fees of $3.36 for regular plates and $7.54 for personalized plates.

BOONVILLE, Mo. (AP) – A Missouri man has been sentenced 10 years in prison for the shooting death of a man last year.

32-year-old Jeremy Humphrey of Boonville was sentenced Monday to six years in prison for second-degree involuntary manslaughter and four years of unlawful possession of a firearm. He was ordered to serve the sentences consecutively.

Humphrey pleaded guilty to the charges last month in the death of Nathan Taylor. Humphrey shot Taylor in the head with a handgun in September 2017.

Humphrey says he shot Taylor because he believed his life depended on it. He says Taylor threatened and chased him with a gun after asking for money.

Prosecutor Daniel Knight disputed Humphrey’s argument, saying police found Taylor’s gun in his waistband at the scene.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Prosecutors say two maintenance workers at a Kansas water park where a 10-year-old boy was decapitated on a waterslide deliberately mislead investigators as their criminal trial began.

Attorneys for David Hughes and John Zalsman countered Tuesday that the Kansas Attorney General’s Office misunderstood how the 17-story Verruckt waterslide functioned.

The men are charged with obstructing the investigation into the August 2016 death of Caleb Schwab at Schlitterbahn in Kansas City.

Hughes and Zalsman are accused of failing to replace a brake mat that fell off a raft two weeks before it went airborne, killing Caleb. The prosecution says the men then lied and said the mat had only been used for testing. The park’s co-owner and the ride’s designer have also been indicted.

KANSAS CITY, KAN. – A man pleaded guilty Monday to robbing a bank in Leawood, Kansas, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.

Lorenzo Moore, 48, Kansas City pleaded guilty to one count of armed bank robbery. In his plea, he admitted that on July 11, 2017, he robbed the BMO Harris Bank at 8840 State Line Road in Leawood, Kan. According to documents filed in federal court, Moore was carrying a messenger-style bag when he gave a clerk a note saying: “Bomb and gun, place money on counter, no alarms, no dye packs.”

Forensic analysis of the note Moore left in the bank revealed a fingerprint that led investigators to arrest Moore. Moore told investigators that during the robbery he put a small box on the counter so the teller’s imagination would “run wild.”

GLASGOW, Mo. (AP) – A wrongful death lawsuit over the suicide of a 17-year-old Missouri boy whom witnesses said killed himself because of relentless bullying has been moved to state court after a judge dismissed federal claims.

The the move was made in August, over a year after Kenny Suttner’s suicide. The case has received attention because the teen’s former Dairy Queen manager faces charges, including assault, in his death.

Kenny’s mother alleged in the lawsuit that the Howard County School District and four administrators were well aware that her son was being bullied yet did nothing to stop it or support him. The school district’s attorney, Tom Mickes, says Kenny’s death was a “tragedy” but that it “doesn’t reduce the tragedy to make allegations against people who are innocent.”

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Latest on the Kansas governor’s race.

The three candidates for Kansas governor met to debate in Wichita on Tuesday afternoon, sponsored by the Kansas Association of Broadcasters.  Watch a replay here.

1:10 p.m.

Independent candidate Greg Orman is stepping up his attacks on Democratic nominee Laura Kelly in the Kansas governor’s race.

Orman compared Kelly, a veteran state senator, to unpopular former Republican Gov. Sam Brownback during a debate Tuesday in Wichita at a Kansas Association of Broadcasters convention.

Orman is trailing well behind Kelly and Republican nominee Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state. Kelly and Kobach are in a dead heat, and many Democrats view Orman as a possible spoiler helping Kobach.

Orman, a Kansas City-area businessman, touted his private-sector experience. He said Kelly is like Brownback in that he also was a longtime legislator before becoming governor.

Brownback was a U.S. senator before being elected governor in 2010. He resigned in January to take an ambassador’s post.

___

12:39 p.m.

The dead-heat Kansas governor’s race has become a referendum on how a Republican experiment in slashing income taxes went awry.

Democrat Laura Kelly and Republican Kris Kobach are arguing over what lessons came from the budget misery that followed tax cuts in 2012 and 2013 and whether the state needs a do-over.

Kelly is a veteran state senator who supported a successful effort last year to repeal most of the tax cuts championed by former GOP Gov. Sam Brownback. She argues that Kobach wants to bring back Brownback’s fiscal experiment and even top it.

Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state, wants to return to cutting taxes but bristles at being described as another Brownback. He says he would avoid Brownback’s mistakes by being more aggressive about controlling spending.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The NASA astronaut and northwest Kansas native who survived last week’s failed launch and emergency landing says he knew he needed to stay calm.

Air Force Col. Nick Hague on Tuesday publicly described his close call during a Facebook conversation.

Hague and Russian Alexei Ovchinin were two minutes into their flight last Thursday from Kazakhstan to the International Space Station when the Soyuz rocket failed.

LIVE NOW: @AstroHague, who along with his Russian crewmate were forced to abort their Oct. 11 Soyuz launch during ascent to @Space_Station, is answering your questions now on Facebook. Watch & ask your questions: https://t.co/Ige2lQnuAR pic.twitter.com/oPIFtQWxye

— NASA (@NASA) October 16, 2018

Their capsule ripped away from the rocket as designed and plummeted to Earth. Hague communicated in Russian throughout the more than half-hour ordeal.

Neither was injured.

Hague says he and his crewmate grinned at touchdown, shook hands and then joked about their short flight. He says he’d rather be in orbit, getting ready for a spacewalk, but is grateful to be alive.