by Mary Rupert
Parallel Parkway was closed off this morning between 59th and 55th streets as a person was barricaded inside a house near 57th and Parallel.
U.S. Marshal Ron Miller said that early this morning, the Marshals Service Task Force, which includes representatives from the local police, was attempting to serve a warrant at the home, active felony warrants out of Wyandotte County.
The person named in the warrant barricaded himself inside the house and did not cooperate with police, Marshal Miller said. There is a search warrant for the location, he said.
The barricaded subject call was then turned over to the Kansas City, Kan., police, he added.
A spokesman for the Kansas City, Kan., Police Department stated that U.S. marshals attempted to serve two arrest warrants this morning, around 8:21 a.m. The person refused to exit the residence and made threats, the spokesman stated.
The warrants were avoiding to register as a sex offender and a parole violation out of Topeka, according to the spokesman.
According to a social media comment by the police chief this morning, officers were working a barricaded person at that location, and the tactical team was called out. The chief made a comment on social media that when the U.S. Marshals Service went to arrest a man at the house on a warrant, that the man threatened them, and the local police were asked for help.
About 50 or so people gathered this morning on 57th Street, across the street from the house on Parallel, to watch.
A special unit from Lenexa and other vehicles arrived and parked about a mile away from the site, at a parking lot on 55th Street south of Parallel. Several people wearing camouflage uniforms got out of the vehicles.
A woman who was inside the house was speaking through a live feed to social media, and her comments also were on a sort of megaphone, amplified to the crowd standing at 57th on the north side of Parallel. At one point, a cheer went up from the crowd of people, responding to what the woman was saying.
The woman inside the home aired several grievances, and the home itself had many signs in its front yard, including religious and political signs. The signs made reference to District Attorney Jerome Gorman and the police.
Former Unified Government Commissioner Tarence Maddox was one of the people who was watching what was happening from across the street.
Maddox said he got a call about 7:30 a.m. today that law enforcement from the ATF and from the marshals were trying to serve a warrant.
“They’ve been on the megaphone saying that they’re willing to die today,” Maddox said about the occupants of the house. They were not willing to give up.
Maddox had gone to the house right before the primary election and he had done a video that he posted on his Facebook page about the people who live there and their protest signs.
The signs basically say that the system is corrupt. “He’s using his First Amendment right to use his property for speech,” Maddox said.
Maddox said he had been told that the resident of the house had been under scrutiny for some time.
“We don’t want to see this family die,” Maddox said. He said he hopes they come out and surrender. There are too many people dying, he said.
(We will update this story with additional information.)
