Police give more details after teens shot, arrested at Towne East parking lot

Saturday update:

Police released more details Saturday morning in the Towne East Square parking lot shooting:

Wichita police spokesperson Andrew Ford provided this info:

The victims, boys ages 17 and 15, remain hospitalized in critical but stable condition. Officers applied a tourniquet on the one shot in the leg before EMS arrived, police say; the other was shot in the torso. The victims “were on the ground when the primary suspect continued to shoot at them,” Ford said. That 17-year-old boy, who was detained at gunpoint at the scene by an off-duty Great Bend police officer in plain clothes, has been arrested on two counts of attempted murder, Ford said.

Wichita Police Chief Joseph Sullivan said “lives were saved” because of the Great Bend officer’s response.

The other two suspects, both 16-year-old boys, will be arrested on disorderly conduct related to fighting, Ford said. At least one of those fled across the street to the At Home store before being arrested.

Friday story:

Two teens were critically wounded and three other teens were taken into custody Friday after a shooting in the parking lot of Towne East Square.

The shooting happened at around 3:37 p.m. just south of Scheels near Round1 Bowling & Arcade.

One suspect was taken into custody right after the shooting by an armed off-duty officer wearing plain clothes, according to Wichita police spokesperson Andrew Ford and people who saw what happened. That officer does not work for Wichita police.

“That suspect had what appears to be a rifle-caliber pistol,” Ford said, adding the two other suspects were arrested nearby by Wichita police responding to the scene.

According to emergency scanner traffic, the suspects ran west of Round1 after the shooting. Multiple “7.62 casings” were recovered as well. That round that is typically associated with AR-style rifles.

One suspect is 17 and two are 16. The victims, who are 17 and 15, were taken to the hospital and remained in critical condition, Ford said just after 5 p.m.

He said one was shot in the lower leg and the other in the upper torso.

“This is another example of teens with a high-powered weapon making poor choices,” Wichita Police Chief Joseph Sullivan said. “And as tragic as this incident is that we have two young people in the hospital, it could have been so much worse.”

The shooting happened as shoppers were coming and going from the mall. In the parking lot, a shoe, bag, clothing and blood could be seen on the ground.

A 35-year-old Wichita woman, who asked not to be named because of concern it was a gang shooting, said she and her mother and sister-in-law all work in the medical field and gave aid to the victims.

She said both teens had been shot in the leg and one also in the hand. Ford said he did not have any details outside of what he released.

The woman said she and the other adults, along with seven children in their families, had been headed into Round1 when they saw the teens fighting. She thought it was play fighting until she heard “pow, pow” with a pause and then two more shots.

“It’s scary to think you are going out to have a good time with your family and friends and then run into something like that,” she said. “You [don’t] know which direction the bullets are going. You just know to get cover.”

She said the women put the children in their vehicle, which was feet away from them and less than 100 feet from the shooting. They saw people running and fleeing.

They went to the wounded teens and used belts to put tourniquets on them, she said. They talked to the boys until help arrived.

Kolton Rohloff and A.J. Quick, both 18-year-olds from Cheney now playing football at Friends University, were going into Scheels when they heard gunshots and people began leaving the parking lot.

They said they saw a middle-aged man pointing a gun at a person on the ground before they went into Scheels, where they said they were locked in for a bit.

“It was a little crazy,” Quick said.

Shannon Davis said she was in Scheels with her granddaughter Autumn Wise, 15, when the shooting happened. They would have been outside during the shooting if they hadn’t already stopped to get ice cream before leaving.

She said the customers were held inside and the children were given ice cream. Then someone from Scheels told the shoppers that a person was in custody and there was no threat.

Wise said she wasn’t scared, but was interested in what was happening. Davis, 52, said just the opposite.

“I’m terrified. I’m still shaking,” she said.

They were released from Scheels just after 4:20 p.m., she said.

Davis said that while she waited in Scheels, a previous shooting at the mall came to mind.

In 2022, a fistfight erupted into gunfire near the food court inside the mall. Trenjvious Hutton, 14, of Wichita was shot several times and died at the scene.

Another teen, Te’Bryis Robinson, was sentenced to 21 years in prison in April after pleading no contest to second-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder and aggravated battery.

After Friday’s shooting, Sullivan had this message for parents: “Know what your young people are doing, know what they have in their rooms, know who they’re hanging with, where they are going. It is very important,” he said. “We can’t do this alone.”

This story was originally published August 8, 2025 at 4:16 PM.