Updated: Wichita boy, 14, arrested in killing; fourth teen killed in city this year
A 14-year-old Wichita boy has been arrested in the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old shot Friday night in east Wichita, police spokesperson Kristopher Gupilan said Saturday afternoon.
The victim, Julio Ruiz of Wichita, died after being taken to a hospital in a private vehicle. Police said he was shot multiple times. The 14-year-old was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder.
“The circumstances of what led up to the shooting are still under investigation,” Gupilan said in a news release. “This was not a random incident and the involved parties are known to each other.”
The shooting was reported at 8:47 p.m. Police determined it occurred in the 100 block of North Zelta, a residential neighborhood just east of the intersection of Greenwich and Douglas.
About the same time, police were called about a gunshot victim walking into a Wichita hospital. A 911 caller said her son had been shot and someone was taking him to the hospital, according to Sedgwick County Emergency Communications scanner traffic.
This is the city’s sixth homicide so far this year, including four teens, according to police reports. There were five at this time last year, including two teens.
These are the other homicides where a teen died this year: a Jan. 26 double homicide in north Wichita where the two teens, ages 19 and 14, drove themselves to the hospital before they died. Five teens have been arrested in the shooting after the group and the teens who died exchanged gunfire, police said. And a 14-year-old was found fatally shot Jan. 29 inside his mother’s west Wichita apartment after she was shot by police. Police said she came outside the apartment and pointed a gun at them before two Wichita Police Department SWAT officers fired one shot each. The mother has had multiple surgeries; her condition is unclear. She has yet to be charged.
