Wichita police arrest parolee in fatal shooting near 21st and Hoover

A 41-year-old Wichita man on parole was arrested Wednesday in connection to a fatal shooting earlier in the day in the backyard of a northwest Wichita home, police say.

Michael Allen Swinney was booked into Sedgwick County Jail at 5:13 p.m. Wednesday. He was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder in connection to the killing of 22-year-old Jacob Kalese of Wichita, police say. He was also arrested on unrelated charges, including a traffic violation on a bicycle, records show.

Kalese died after being shot in the backyard of a home in the 2400 block of North Sunny Lane, near 21st and Hoover. He was with his girlfriend at a small gathering at the home, police said.

“The investigation revealed Kalese and Swinney were at a gathering at the home with multiple individuals,” Wichita spokesman Charley Davidson said in a news release. “A disturbance occurred between them, multiple shots were fired, and Swinney fled the scene.”

Officers responded to the shooting at around 12:50 a.m. Wednesday. Swinney was later arrested without incident at a home in the 100 block of South Young, Davidson said.

Swinney was released from prison in October, according to Kansas Department of Corrections records, which show convictions dating back to 1997. All nine of his listed convictions are for cases in Sedgwick County, the records show. The charges included aggravated robbery, aggravated assault, drug charges, criminal possession of a firearm by a felon and criminal discharge of a weapon.

He has around 80 disciplinary reports from his time in prison, with the first report happening in 1999, records show.

This is the 12th homicide of the year, with two called justified homicides and 10 criminal. Arrests have been made in all of the criminal homicides. Wichita had nine homicides at this time last year.

This story was originally published March 4, 2021 at 9:20 AM.