Hutchinson

An electrical problem caused a house fire in Hutchinson early Friday morning. Crews responded to the fire in the 1300 block of 13th Terrace around 6:15. When the arrived, the found part of the home fully engulfed. No one was home at the time. It took firefighters three hours to put the fire out. The home belonged to a local firefighter. The fire caused $60,00 in damage which was mostly contained to the attached garage.

Hutchinson police investigate the third church vandalism in just a month.  The latest vandalism was reported Sunday at Eastwood Church of Christ.  Someone broke out windows and sprayed fire extinguishers throughout the building.      Last week, officials at Grace Episcopal Church reported vandalism that included several thousand dollars in damage to stained glass windows. And in late March, vandals clogged a toilet of another church which flooded a large portion of the building.

A lot of people say it really caught them off guard in the midst of a brutal drought. It was a Sunday of cleaning up after an intense microburst thunderstorm ripped through the Hutchinson area leaving a trail of debris. Homes are damaged, trees are uprooted and electricity was knocked out.  Westar Energy crews worked through the day to repair snapped power poles.  Several people tell Eyewitness News the thunder and hard-driving rain woke them up early in the morning.  They say that for more than half an hour they listened to the storm bombard their homes.

Hutchinson police warn people to be wary of some door-to-door salesmen. On the police department's Facebook page Hutch police say several people have complained about a company named ECR Corporations. The company has six or seven people in the Hutchinson area. Hutch police say the company is working without a required peddler's permit. The department says the employees have been seen wearing red jackets and are selling books and magazines. If you see one of the sales people, call 911.

A man is in critical condition after being struck by a car near the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson Monday morning. Police tell us a car driven by a 62-year-old woman was headed east on 11th Avenue as a 58-year-old man was crossing the street in the crosswalk. The man was flown to a Wichita hospital for treatment of critical injuries.  The accident is still under investigation. Police don't believe alcohol or drugs were involved.  

Two people are in custody tonight after police say they shot up a Hutchinson home.  It happened early this afternoon in the 1100 block of East Avenue,  Police say a car pulled up to teh house and shot at it. One person was hit in the foot. Before the vehicle could speed off, someone walked out of the home and returned fire.  A couple hours later, Police caught up to the suspects in west Wichita on Kellogg Ave.  

A man and woman arrested in Emporia are being investigated as suspects in church burglaries there, and police are looking into possible links to a rash of similar crimes elsewhere in Kansas and Oklahoma.     KVOE-AM reports the 22-year-old man and 33-year-old woman are both from Ponca City, Okla. They were arrested Thursday night in Emporia, where three churches were burglarized earlier this week.     Police in Arkansas City tell Eyewitness News the man was arrested on a warrant from that south-central Kansas community.

A Hutchinson man has been arrested again just minutes after a Reno County judge dismissed charges. Dwight Jergens returned to court Friday morning in connection to charges of promoting prostitution. Judge Rose dismissed those charges, but Jergens was immediately arrested on a different warrant. His new charges include two counts of aggravated human trafficking, two counts of attempted aggravated human trafficking, one count aggravated criminal sodomy and one count of rape. Authorities said the human trafficking charges are in connection to Jergens' authority to control a person due to his bonding business.

A Hutchinson child is in fair condition after being hit by a van.  The Reno County Sheriff says the accident happened around noon Sunday. He says the 3-year-old was on a parked pick up truck in the 100 block of West 10th Avenue.  Around that time, a woman was traveling eastbound on West 10th.  That's when the boy climbed off of the pickup and into traffic.  He was struck by the right vendor of the woman's van. The 3-year-old went...

A Hutchinson man will spend two years in prison for threatening to kill President Barack Obama.  27-year-old Michael Scott Ramsey pleaded guilty to one count of threatening the president. In his plea, Ramsey admitted he wrote two letters in 2009 and delivered them to the staff of the Larned State Hospital.   In the first letter, he said "I am going to kill Barrack (sic) Obama  ... and this is Michael Ramsey telling you this. " In the second letter, Ramsey wrote, "I'll take his life.