🎥 Police clear central Kensington after attempted bank robbery

By KIRBY ROSS
Phillips County Review

After reports of a bank robbery, bomb threat, shooting and kidnapping in Kensington, and an alleged related homicide in Kirwin, law enforcement agencies from multiple departments swarmed into both small north central Kansas communities early Monday morning.

While the Kirwin angle of this drama has not proven out, details are still sketchy on the rest and and apparently won’t become clear until after a full investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. 

The basic narrative that initially made its way through Smith and Phillips counties Monday morning was a basic hodgepodge of Facebook innuendo.

Facing off against the Facebook narrative, the Smith County Sheriff’s Office soon addressed it with a press release stating “As many have seen there has been a major event happening in Kensington today.  

“This morning a woman entered the bank in Kensington attempting to rob the bank and made a bomb threat. The woman left the bank and the two male suspects she was with took off taking her 8-week-old baby girl.

"We have many agencies assisting with this event and we have no other details to give at this time. As more unfolds we will update.”

As the events the Smith County Sheriff described were unfolding,  in next door, Phillips County law enforcement officers were dispatched to Kirwin, ten miles from Kensington, amidst reports there was a body that had been shot to death in the old Kirwin School House.

Deploying one of our own Phillips County Review correspondents to that scene, within minutes she was reporting a swarm of over a dozen police were on the square in Kirwin, and a number more were surrounding the Kirwin school house.

Meanwhile, at least one Wichita media outlet picked up on this activity, and reporting the possible incident at the old Kirwin school as being a “school shooting.”

For our readers who are not aware, the Kirwin school was closed in 2007 as Eastern Heights consolidated with Kensington to form Thunder Ridge School District.  

The Kirwin school afterwards passed into  private hands, and has gone into a state of decay since then. In recent years, according to sources within law enforcement, it appears to have been used as a temporary base for the homeless and by people passing through.

With one of our own people already on the scene in Kirwin, this reporter headed to Kensington for a first-hand look at what was going on there.

Upon arrival, we found a perimeter had been set up around the entire downtown area, with ambulances, four wheelers, police vehicles, and public utility vans being utilized as roadblocks. In addition, a large number of civilians and law enforcement — two dozens perhaps — were manning these posts.

Parking at a relative’s house a block from the bank to learn what he had observed, we found he was not home. Moving from that yard and past the adjacent VFW building, the scene we came upon looked like something out of an apocalyptic movie.  

Not a single person was in the downtown area.  Nobody.  And every single vehicle was gone from Main Street for a four block stretch.  Not one vehicle was parked in the entire commercial district of downtown Kensington.  The only thing missing from this surreal scene was a tumbleweed blowing down the street followed by a small dust devil.   

Likewise, the area immediately surrounding the bank itself was devoid of any persons or activity.  No investigators were outside, or moving around inside. The closest people could be seen were two blocks away.

With the entire commercial district of Kensington on tight lockdown we then made our way back to our car and proceeded over to Kirwin.

Upon arriving at the old school there, which is in a state of considerable decline, we immediately observed a police command post with a number of vehicles and law enforcement officers around it.

We were met by Phillips County Sheriff Charlie Radabaugh, who told us a sweep had been made through the building and nothing of consequence had been found relating to criminal activity, just evidence of occasional itinerant residents. 

We were advised both scenes in Kirwin and Kensington were secured and were awaiting investigators from the FBI and KBI to arrive.

Afterwards seeking a more specific statement regarding the Kirwin scene, Undersheriff Gary Stephen told the Review “we found no evidence to support a shooting.”

It was around that same time a general statement was issued by the Phillips County Sheriff’s Office: “Update--robbery suspect is in custody, no child or other persons of interest are being sought at this time. Kansas Bureau of Investigation is handling the situation. We’ll provide additional information when it becomes available.”

There is a lot more to be heard regarding what exactly happened in these two tiny north central Kansas communities Monday morning.  The huge gaps in this story apparently will have to wait to be told after the KBI and FBI finish their investigations.  

At that time, we’ll try to make sense out of the remaining mysteries of this unfolding story.