photo by: Johnson County Sheriff's Office

Seth Austin Kenney

A Gardner man threatened a man and two children on a highway in Douglas County before leading law enforcement on a pursuit through traffic, an affidavit alleges.

Seth A. Kenney, now 20 but 19 at the time of the alleged incident, has been charged in Douglas County District Court with four felonies: three counts of aggravated assault and one count of fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer.

The Journal-World requested and recently received the affidavit supporting Kenney’s arrest. Allegations in affidavits have not been proved in court.

According to the affidavit, Douglas County sheriff’s deputies were working a car accident at mile marker 385 on U.S. Highway 40, which is just west of the Kansas Highway 10 interchange at Iowa Street, just before 6:30 p.m. on May 10. That area of the highway is one lane going each direction.

The alleged victim in the case, an adult man, drove up to a deputy at the accident scene and told him that a white man in a white Jeep had pulled up next to him on the shoulder and pointed a gun at him, according to the affidavit. The alleged victim had his son and his son’s friend in his vehicle with him, both of whom were 13 at the time.

The alleged victim told the deputy he was stopped in traffic because of the accident when the man in the Jeep Grand Cherokee drove up next to his vehicle on the shoulder, rolled the window down, pulled a gun and yelled “Do you want to get shot?” before speeding away, the affidavit says.

About a mile down the highway, a master deputy conducted a traffic stop on the Jeep, but the vehicle fled after initially stopping. The suspect reportedly drove off down the shoulder at 90 mph, forcing other cars to avoid him at the highway’s intersection with West 27th Street, according to the affidavit. The master deputy then “initiated a pursuit that was quickly terminated by supervision, due to the time of day, heavy traffic and the reckless driving of the suspect.”

Through his license plate and a photo, deputies identified Kenney as the suspect. When shown the photo later that day, the alleged victim identified Kenney as the man who had pointed the gun at him.

Gardner police reportedly told deputies that they were not able to locate Kenney or his vehicle, but they said a driver with the same description and in the same vehicle had done the same thing to two other victims in Gardner that day, according to the affidavit.

Dash cam video from one of the deputies’ vehicles reportedly shows the white Jeep speeding away.

Kenney was booked into the Johnson County Jail in July. Douglas County District Court issued a bench warrant for him and he was charged on Aug. 6.

At a court hearing Tuesday, Tyler Garretson, Kenney’s defense attorney, asked the judge to schedule Kenney’s next court appearance for a later date so that he could continue to review discovery. Kenney’s next appearance is set for 2 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 15.