Disturbance between Wichita neighbors ends with one of them shot dead
Update: Police have identified the victim as 48-year-old Brian Baker of Wichita.
Original story: A 48-year-old man is dead after a dispute between Wichita neighbors ended in gunfire on Friday night.
Wichita police said they responded to a gunshot disturbance call at the 900 block of South Vassar around 6:14 p.m. They found a 48-year-old man with multiple gunshot wounds to his torso. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 6:41 p.m.
Police spokesperson Brad Wright said a 38-year-old man surrendered to Wichita police and was taken into custody. The two men, officers said, were neighbors.
Neither person’s name has been released yet by the police.
There is no ongoing threat in the neighborhood, police said, and they are not looking for additional suspects at this time.
“This investigation is very, very new, very active and very preliminary,” Wright said.
He asked anyone with information to contact Wichita Police Department detectives at 316-268-4407 or leave an anonymous Crime Stoppers tip by calling 316-267-2111 or submitting a tip online.
Wichita Police Chief Joe Sullivan, who addressed the media at a 7:30 p.m. briefing, said this shooting and others like it are part of a frustrating recent trend.
“I mean, here we are again. Somebody chose a permanent solution for what should be a temporary problem,” Sullivan said. “... It’s very frustrating all these incidents of gun violence, none of which are related.”
What’s left in the aftermath of a violent crime like this, Sullivan said, is an ugly scar on a community’s memory of what was a beautiful September day.
“It’s another neighborhood traumatized,” Sullivan said. “(It was a) beautiful Friday night, we had parents out here playing on the street with their children when this happened, and now we have a block that is traumatized and children that have been impacted in a way that we’ll never be able to truly fix. So it’s very sad, regardless of what the investigation determines.”
Contributing: Amy Renee Leiker of The Eagle
This story was originally published September 12, 2025 at 8:29 PM.
