21-year-old man arrested after two teen girls shot Friday night
A 21-year-old man has been taken into police custody after two teenage girls, a 15-year-old and an 18-year-old, were shot in north Wichita on Friday night.
A Raven Gunshot Detection System alerted officers of the shooting near the 14th Street N. and Piatt at 10:28 p.m. on Friday, a press release from the Wichita Police Department said.
There, police found a 15-year-old girl who had a graze wound to her upper body; she was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, the release said.
Ten minutes after the detection system was alerted of gunfire and while investigators were still at the scene of the shooting, an 18-year-old woman who had been shot in her lower body walked into Ascension Via Christi St. Francis hospital. She was wounded in the same shooting, police said.
A WPD investigation found that the 18-year-old had gone to North Piatt with several other people, including the 21-year-old man who police suspect to be the shooter.
A fight broke out, and more than three dozen rifle rounds were fired, injuring the teen girls. Police also determined that the shooting was connected to an ongoing dispute between the people involved that had previously been documented by police.
“We have grown adults who should be making responsible decisions instead choosing to involve themselves in disputes with juveniles, showing up to fight and then resorting to gunfire with no regard for the safety of anyone around them,” Wichita Police Joe Sullivan said in the statement. “In this case, not only were innocent people put at risk, but the suspect also shot someone who arrived with his own group. That is reckless, unacceptable and it has to stop.”
Law enforcement searched for the 21-year-old overnight before he was taken into custody on Saturday. He was arrested and booked on suspicion of aggravated battery, aggravated assault and criminal damage to property, the release said.
The Wichita Eagle does not name people who have been arrested unless they are charged.
