Police: Two teens shot with shotgun; owner of shuttered Wichita business arrested

The owner of a shuttered business that in the past has had several run-ins with authorities has been arrested after he shot two teenagers with a shotgun on Friday night, Wichita police spokesperson Charley Davidson said Saturday.

Ken Thomas, 62, of Wichita was arrested on suspicion of two counts of aggravated battery. Thomas is the owner of the former TreatCo business, which once made pet treats at its facility near 21st and Broadway.

Police responded to a shooting about 10:35 p.m. Friday at the former TreatCo plant. Officers found a 19-year-old man with shots to his hand and torso from shotgun pellets, Davidson said.

The man was taken to an area hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

“While at the hospital, a second 17-year-old victim arrived who had been shot in the torso by pellets from a shotgun,” Davidson said.

He was also treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

“The investigation revealed the two victims entered the Treatco plant property in the 2300 block of North Broadway when they were approached by Thomas, who is the owner of the property,” Davidson said. “Thomas fired multiple shots from a shotgun at the males, striking them.”

Thomas was arrested without incident at the TreatCo plant and a shotgun was recovered, Davidson said.

The plant burned for more than a day last year. It was the third time the facility has burned since 2011.

Thomas had been charged in connection to an incident during one of those fires.

Thomas previously said he was wrestled to the ground after firefighters wouldn’t heed his warnings to turn off a high-pressure gas line. He sued but lost.

But that wasn’t the only run-in with authorities that TreatCo officials had since the company arrived from Texas in 1996.

The Environmental Protection Agency raided TreatCo in 2009 after a history of violations and confrontations between government regulators and the company.

Among the concerns cited by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment in 2007 was the disposal of material at the plant from a chemical company. The company has had citations, warning letters, consent agreements or orders relating to environmental violations in 1999 and from 2002 to 2006, according to news reports.

Thomas told The Eagle in 2012 that the EPA never cited TreatCo following the raid.

“If they’re going to get you, they throw you against the wall,” he told The Eagle in 2012. “They don’t wait.”

TreatCo entered into a consent agreement with the city of Wichita in November 2008 in which the business admitted no wrongdoing but agreed to pay $12,700 in fines in order to settle the city’s claims and agreed to comply with the city’s wastewater discharge permit.

In the consent order, according to news reports, the city contended TreatCo was receiving waste petroleum oil that had been generated off site. The city noted odors created at the plant and contended TreatCo failed to notify the city that it was taking in process-waste from companies in Great Bend, Galena and Arkansas City and discharging that waste into the city sewer system.

TreatCo was also raided by the Immigration and Naturalization Service soon after it opened in Wichita in 1996. Six Mexican immigrants were arrested. Margie Thomas, Ken’s mother, said at the time that they were fooled by immigrants who used forged documents.

This story was originally published April 3, 2021 at 10:30 PM.