KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A police officer shot and killed a man who fled multiple times when the officer tried to arrest him over the weekend in Kansas City, Missouri.

The man who died was a suspect in an armed carjacking that happened around 12:30 a.m. Sunday.

Police say the armed man had forced his way into a home and took a vehicle. While officers were at the home, the man returned.

The man fled when police tried to arrest him, but an officer caught up with him just south of the home. The man struggled, and the officer fired his gun.

The suspect received first aid and was taken to a hospital by ambulance where he died. The officer wasn’t injured.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri conservation officials say a particularly troublesome invasive fish has been found in the state for the first time.

An angler caught a northern snakehead in a ditch within the St. Francis River levee in April in Dunklin County.

The fish tolerates a wide range of water temperatures, reproduces five times per year and preys on animals that native species eat. It also can survive several days out of water.

It was the first time the fish was found in Missouri and conservation officials say they have no evidence that a population has been established in the state.

The conservation department recommends killing any northern snakehead caught in the Missouri.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — One year after Kansas lawmakers agreed to compensate people who were wrongfully convicted and incarcerated, the state has paid two claims, is negotiating one and is fighting two others.

Kansas agreed to pay $1.1 million to Richard Jones of Kansas City, who spent 17 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of a 2000 robbery that he says was committed by someone who looks just like him. This week the state agreed to pay $1.03 million to Floyd Bledsoe , who spent nearly 16 years behind bars for the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl — a crime that his brother claimed in a suicide note.

Among the remaining claims is one seeking $1.52 million for Lamonte McIntyre , who spent 23 years in prison for a 1994 double murder in Kansas City, Kansas. A local district attorney later called the case an example of “manifest injustice.” No physical evidence was presented and the case was based on allegedly coerced testimony.

The Associated Press obtained records from the Attorney General’s office on the cases through a request under the Kansas Open Records Act and from court filings.

Jones, Bledsoe and McIntyre testified at the Legislature last year in support of a bill to compensate former inmates who have been wrongfully incarcerated. The law provides for $65,000 for each year a person spent behind bars along with health insurance benefits, financial assistance for higher education and various social services.

When signing the bill last year, then-Gov. Jeff Colyer publicly apologized to McIntyre, Bledsoe and Jones — saying “we will make it right.”

But the cases have taken time to wind through the system.

“The law moves slowly, from what I can tell you,” said Cheryl Pilate, one of the attorneys representing McIntyre. She said her dealings with the attorney general’s office have been cordial, adding there is no need to have “an adversarial” hearing in McIntyre’s case.

Sen. Molly Baumgardner, a Republican who helped write the law, said legislators wanted to make sure the process to pay claims was thorough and involved people outside the attorney general’s office.

The state is challenging two claims from former inmates.

Bobby Harper, who spent nearly two years in prison before his 1987 burglary conviction was reversed by the Kansas Supreme Court, is seeking $75,000 and other costs. The attorney general’s office asked a court to reject Harper’s claim because it says Harper cannot prove he’s “actually innocent,” as the compensation law requires. The state argued the statute was not intended to apply to people whose convictions were overturned by insufficient evidence or a legal technically, as in Harper’s case.

Harper’s attorney has not yet responded in court to the state’s filing and could not immediately be reached for comment.

Kansas is also disputing the claim brought by Michael Mata, who as a juvenile in 2011 was incarcerated for less than a year before his conviction for aggravated indecent liberties with a child was overturned on appeal. Mata is seeking $40,246 in compensation.

The attorney general’s office has asked a court to dismiss Mata’s claim, arguing his adjudication as a “juvenile offender” and his relatively short time at a juvenile correctional facility do not satisfy the elements for recovery of damages under the law. Mata’s attorney, Lora Ingels, said in a court filing that the state was “basically saying a juvenile’s life and liberty is not as valuable as an adult’s life and liberty.”

Meanwhile, Jones, — whose wrongful conviction became known as the “doppleganger” case because of his mistaken identity — has new legal problems. Federal prosecutors on Wednesday charged Jones in a new five-count indictment on weapons and drug charges.

WICHITA, KAN.– Zoos in Topeka and Wichita are receiving tiger and lion pelts that federal agents seized from wildlife traffickers, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.

The pelts donated were seized by agents of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who were enforcing federal laws aimed at protecting endangered animals and disrupting the global black market for hides and other parts of protected wildlife.

“Poachers, wildlife smugglers and black market merchants are stealing our last chance to protect and preserve creatures of awesome strength and beauty,” McAllister said. “Once these animals go, they will be gone forever. They are a precious natural resource that the federal government protects, including by criminal prosecution of illegal traffickers.”

The Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD), together with United States Attorneys’ Offices across the country, is responsible for prosecuting international wildlife trafficking crimes, primarily under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the Lacey Act, as well as crimes related to wildlife trafficking, such as smuggling, money laundering, and criminal conspiracy.

Wildlife items forfeited or abandoned to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are stored in a 22,000-square-foot office and warehouse located northeast of Denver that is called the National Wildlife Repository. Many of the items are donated to educational facilities and nonprofit organizations to aid in teaching about endangered species.

McAllister said the tiger pelts came from the wildlife depository. Fish and Wildlife Service agents used some of them in a sting operation in Wichita in 2018. A Wichita man pleaded guilty to making a deal to pay $8,000 to have two tiger pelts delivered to him. Agents retrieved the tiger pelts and seized a lion pelt from his home when they arrested him.

McAllister said the Justice Department estimates the international illegal trade in wildlife generates as much as $23 billion annually. In Kansas in recent years, federal agents have investigated wildlife trafficking cases including deer and elk that had been poached by guides and hunters, eagle feathers that were being unlawfully sold and Asian leopard cats unlawfully imported to Kansas. Federal prosecutors across the country also have pursued cases involving native turtles being exported to other countries.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Building inspectors in Jefferson City are tagging structures damaged by a Wednesday night tornado with red, yellow and green placards.

16 inspectors are part of the Structural Assessment and Visual Evaluation Coalition, which consists of volunteer engineers, architects and building officials from across Missouri.

Buildings marked with red placards are considered too unsafe to occupy. Yellow placards mean a portion of the structure is unsafe. A green placard means the building is structurally safe and residents can occupy it.

Gov. Mike Parson’s Office said in a Friday news release that the coalition is expected to assess about 500 Jefferson City buildings and 200 structures in Cole County.

Of the first 321 structures inspected, 183 received green placards, 60 received yellow placards and 78 received red placards.

By BRIAN GRIMMETT

Standing near the corner of his property in southeastern Reno County, Nick Egli looked east and pointed to the proposed locations for several 500-feet-tall wind turbines.

Egli is standing on a grass airstrip he’s spent the last 10 years building. He pictures a few more homes, some hangars and, eventually, a residential community for pilots of small planes.

“If there’s turbines there, you’ve completely killed everything I’ve been working on the last 10 years,” he said.

Egli is one of many people in the area fighting against a wind farm proposed by Florida-based NextEra Energy.

It’s the latest of several projects NextEra has already completed in the state. And the company isn’t alone.

Businesses from all over the world have cashed in on Kansas’ abundant wind in the past decade. Most projects went up without much fanfare.

But stiff opposition facing the Reno County project has raised some anxiety in the industry as companies consider its implications for future development.

Over the past 4 years, NextEra Energy signed deals with Reno County landowners to plant giant wind turbines on their property. It’s one step in a long process that needs a go-ahead from county officials.

Developers chose this part of Reno County because it has plenty of wind, it’s close to transmission lines that transport the electricity to places that need it, like Wichita, and it had enough willing landowners.

“Farming has not been an especially lucrative income producer,” Randy Jackson told the planning commission during one of several hours-long public hearings. “To continue to own our property, we need to take advantage of every income potential we have.”

But Jackson was among the few to speak in support, and most of those were landowners benefitting from the project.

The majority of speakers voiced their opposition.

“We could have chosen to live anywhere but we chose to live here,” Matt Amos said. “Had I known that this was going to happen, I would have not have chosen to live here.”

One after another, the stream of voices filled the conference hall.

“Why is this wind farm being built so close to concentrated populations of people and wildlife?” Darcy Gray of Andale asked. “I’m not opposed to wind energy, but the location does not make sense.”

Nick Egli also spoke at the hearing. But he ultimately blames his neighbors who signed leases, not county officials.

He recalled what one of his neighbors told him.

“He said, ‘Well, I’m going to make $4,500 a quarter,’” Egli said. “Really? That’s what you’re selling me out for?”

Egli isn’t against renewable energy. He’s actually an electrician and has installed solar panels on the roof of the house he’s building. It will provide him with enough electricity that he won’t need to connect to the grid.

He just wants what he calls sensible setbacks.

But while he calls it sensible, a 3,000-foot setback from property lines would be the largest in the state. That type of setback in Kansas typically runs about 500 feet.

Setbacks have been a sticking point from the beginning, including for the Reno County planning commission. After failing to reach a consensus, the commission rejected the proposal.

Rorik Peterson has helped develop several wind farms in Kansas for EDP Renewables — most recently a 200-megawatt project in Allen County.

He said this is the first project in the state he’s ever seen rejected by a county planning commission. Previously, if projects got enough landowners to sign leases, it was generally a sign the community was on board.

A decade and a half ago, local officials did stop a wind farm in Waubansee County. It created a controversy that led to a case that went all the way to the Kansas Supreme Court. But the trend has been decididly more pro-wind since.

While the decision in Reno County was unexpected, Peterson doesn’t think it’s a sign developing future wind projects is going to get harder in Kansas.

“It may be new to these portions of the state,” he said, “but we develop as an industry in many communities that are very similar.”

And NextEra’s Reno County project isn’t dead yet. The three-member county commission has the final say and will take up the issue June 11.

Like the landowners who support the project, Reno County stands to gain financially from its approval. Tax revenue from the turbines will generate as much as $39 million over the next 30 years.

But for those still opposed, it’s about more than just what the county will gain. It’s about what they could lose — a quiet home on a lonely prairie.

“I’m going to be able to tell our kids that I did everything I could,” Egli said, “before I had to sell our place I built for generations.”

Brian Grimmett reports on the environment and energy for the Kansas News Service. Follow him on Twitter @briangrimmett 

LACLEDE COUNTY — One person died in an accident just after 1:30p.m. Saturday in Laclede County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 1981 Chevy C15 driven by Patrick E. Lubbock, 28, Lebanon, was traveling on Red Oak turning westbound onto Highway 32 three miles east of Lebanon.

The vehicle turned into the path of a 2015 Nissan Quest driven by Sara E. Cook, 34, Lebanon. The vehicles collided head-on.

Mercy Air Ambulance transported Maria I. Stone, 59, and Carmen E. McCulloch, 58, both of Lebanon, and passengers in the Nissan, to Cox North Hospital where Stone died.

Mercy Ambulance transported Cook and two 5-year-old children to Mercy Hospital in Lebanon. Lubbock was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident, according to the MSHP. He refused treatment at the scene.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri is the 20th state to join a nationwide sex offender registry.

OffenderWatch said in a news release this week that every Missouri law enforcement agency that manages or investigates registered sex offenders will be able to collaborate on offender records, aid each other in investigations and share notifications with the public. It won a five-year contract from the Missouri Highway Patrol.

Missouri has about 16,000 registered sex offenders.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children says there are more than 900,000 registered sex offenders in the United States.

OffenderWatch says its service allows different law enforcement agencies to collaborate on a single offender record, improving accuracy and aiding in public safety. Its technology is used by more than 3,000 law enforcement agencies in 37 states.