Two men critically injured in southwest Wichita shooting

A shooting incident in southwest Wichita Saturday afternoon left two men in critical condition, police said.

The shootings occurred just after 2:45 p.m. at the corner of Fern and Merton, near Seneca and Harry, authorities said. Neither man was breathing when they were transported to the hospital, according to a Sedgwick County emergency dispatch supervisor.

Wichita Police Sgt. Scott Moon said they were in “definitely critical” condition following the shooting. One man has been detained for questioning, Moon said, and no other suspects are being sought.

“We have several witnesses” to what happened, Moon said, adding that they were “very cooperative.”

Residents of the surrounding area have no cause for concern, he said.

“I would say the neighborhood’s safe,” Moon said. “Everything’s fine.”

More than one person called 911 to report the shooting, Moon said. Emergency radio traffic at the time of the shooting indicated one person told dispatchers they heard five shots. Another reported seeing a man on the ground.

When officers first arrived, Moon said, they found two men on the ground.

Residents north of the shooting said they did not hear the shots and only realized something was happening when police cars began converging on the scene, their sirens activated.

Genevieve Wacker and her husband have lived just down the street from where the shooting occurred for a half-century.

“An ambulance parked here for a few minutes and then left, and came back and went down the alley,” Wacker said as she stood near the curb, “so I didn’t know what’s going on.”

It was a quiet neighborhood when her husband was a teenager, she said, but it hasn’t been quiet for a long time now. She was already troubled by a shooting nearby on Elizabeth not long ago, she said, and what happened Saturday won’t help her peace of mind, either.

Marx Galdamez moved with his family to Wichita from Queens, N.Y., seven years ago and relished the comparative peace of the neighborhood where Saturday’s shooting occurred. But crime rose, he said, prompting them to move. They now live on the north side.

They were back in the neighborhood Saturday so Galdamez’s son, Lenin, could visit a friend from his days at nearby Stanley Elementary when the shooting occurred.

“It’s getting bad,” Galdamez said of crime in the area.

Moon said additional information about the shooting incident is likely to be released on Sunday.

This story was originally published January 6, 2018 at 4:06 PM with the headline "Two men critically injured in southwest Wichita shooting."