Fight over bike at Wichita park ends in shooting. Man gets prison
A 44-year-old man has been ordered to serve a year in prison for shooting another man during a spat over a bicycle at a Wichita park last fall, court records show.
Anthony L. Irby of Wichita pleaded no contest in March to one count of aggravated battery for shooting the 62-year-old man in the leg on Sept. 21, 2025. He was sentenced Friday by Sedgwick County District Judge Kathleen Watson.
Court records say Irby pepper sprayed and then shot the man at the Kansas Fallen Firefighters Memorial Park around 8 a.m. after they disagreed about who owned a bicycle. The 62-year-old went to a nearby fire station for help as Irby fled on the bike from the park at 1302 S. Topeka. He was arrested after Wichita police officers chased him into an alley.
The 62-year-old told police he saw Irby, whom he knew by the name “Blue,” riding his stolen bicycle after he arrived at the park to clean it that morning. He told police when he confronted Irby, Irby told him “he would steal his other bicycle,” “maced him in the face” and then shot him with a gun pulled from his waistband, an affidavit says.
Irby painted the 62-year-old man as the aggressor, telling police that the man threatened to take the bicycle back after amicably trading it for another one a couple of nights prior, according to the affidavit. He told police he used the pepper spray and fired one shot at the ground in self-defense after a tug of war over the bike where the man raged and charged at him.
Irby told officers he knew he was barred from having a gun because he was already a convicted felon at the time, the affidavit says.
Irby has an extensive criminal history dating back to the late 1990s, including drug possession, rape, aggravated criminal sodomy, aggravated assault, theft, battery and attempted aggravated battery convictions, court records show.
