Shot in downtown a near-miss for worker
Posted: May 17, 2011
An employee inside an insurance building just south of downtown Topeka sustained minor injuries Tuesday morning after being showered with glass when a stray bullet that was believed to have been shot from a vehicle a half-block away pierced a window at the building, police said.
The victim was treated at the scene by American Medical Response personnel, but wasn't taken to a hospital.
As of Tuesday afternoon, no one was reported to have been struck by a bullet from the drive-by shooting.
Officers were called at 10:08 a.m. to S.W. 15th and Topeka Boulevard on a report of multiple gunshots fired in the area.
Police spokeswoman Kristen Veverka said a black or dark-blue vehicle was seen leaving the scene at a high rate of speed, eastbound on S.W. 15th.
Police responding to the scene found two windows near the south end of the Kansas Mutual Insurance Co., 1435 S.W. Topeka Blvd., had been hit.
A large, round hole could be seen in both the exterior storm window and in the office window. A Venetian blind inside the office window was slightly crumpled near the site of the bullet hole. The building is located at the northwest corner of S.W. 15th and Topeka Boulevard.
Officers investigating the incident quickly determined the shot may have been fired from a vehicle across the street, just east of the Topeka Workforce Center, 1430 S.W. Topeka Blvd. The Workforce Center is located on the northeast corner of S.W. 15th and Topeka Boulevard.
If shots were fired from east of the Workforce Center, the bullet would have traveled across a busy S.W. Topeka Boulevard.
Police at the scene said the intended victim of the gunfire was believed to be coming out of the Workforce Center's main door, near the southwest corner of the three-story building.
Police said the insurance building that was struck wasn't an intended target of the gunfire.
Paul Shields, vice president of Kansas Mutual Insurance Co., said an employee was working at his computer near a window when the gunshots rang out.
One of the bullets hit the window near where the man was working, opening up a "hole about the size of a softball" in the window, Shields said.
The bullet appeared to have missed the man by about a foot, Shields said. The man got cut by some glass but wasn't seriously injured. He was sent home for the rest of the day.
"He was facing his computer," Shields said. "If he had been facing forward, he probably would have been hit in the shoulder."
The bullet appeared to have struck the man's desk and bounced back under a credenza, where police officers found it, Shields said.
Chavez Restoration and Cleaning on Tuesday afternoon was cleaning up shards of glass that were strewn across the office, Shields said. The interior window that was damaged already had been replaced by 2:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Lee Glenn, who said he was near S.W. 14th and Western, heard six shots in rapid succession and called the police department's nonemergency number to report the gunfire.
Another area resident, Marie Stano, said she was in her home watching "In the Heat of the Night" on television when she was startled by gunfire. She, too, said she hear six shots.
Meanwhile, a man who was seated in his vehicle in the Workforce Center's parking lot on the south side of the building, waiting on a friend to come out of the building, ducked for cover after he heard the pop-pop-pop of gunfire. He said he thought he heard about seven shots.
The man, who said he was reading a book on religion at the time, said he heard the shots, then turned to see where they were coming from. He said he saw a man run past his vehicle and seek cover in the Workforce Center. The man in the vehicle said he then ducked for cover. When he looked up, he said, he didn't see any vehicles in the area where the shots were fired.
Police combed the area for evidence and talked with several witnesses to the shooting outside the Workforce Center. Several spent shell casings were found in the brick alley in the 1400 block of S.W. Topeka Boulevard, directly southeast of the Workforce Center.
"It appears several shots were fired," said Lt. Kipp Low, of the Topeka Police Department. "We have no victim who was hit by the gunfire. We are following up on several leads."
No descriptions on the assailants were available.
Tuesday's shooting was the latest in a series of gun-related violence that has erupted since Thursday. One person was shot and killed late Sunday in the 600 block of S.E. Lawrence. An 18-year-old woman was seriously wounded late Thursday in the Pine Ridge Housing complex in East Topeka.
No arrests have been reported in connection with the latest shootings in Topeka.
Anyone with information about the shooting may call detectives at (785) 368-9400 or Crime Stoppers at (785) 234-0007.
