photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

The Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center is pictured on Sept. 4, 2024.

Updated at 10:30 a.m. Friday, May 1

A teen who was acquitted four months ago of aggravated assault with a gun was arrested Friday on suspicion of armed robbery.

Jayse Michael Sloop, 18, was taken into custody around midnight. The Douglas County Jail booking log indicates that the arrest occurred at 102 N. Eighth St., which the log lists as the Eighth Street boat ramp. However, a spokeswoman for the Lawrence Police Department indicated that the arrest occurred at the Kwik Shop on Massachusetts Street.

The spokeswoman, Laura McCabe, said the incident involved two people who knew each other and who had arranged to meet at the boat ramp on April 27. One of the people brought a third person.

“It seems the two men who came together stole the first man’s firearm and fired warning shots from two different weapons to get him to leave,” McCabe said in an email. No one was physically injured.

Officers found shell casings at the scene, she said.

Sloop was evidently arrested at the Kwik Shop, and the second suspect was not in custody as of Friday morning, McCabe said. The investigation is ongoing.

Sloop was acquitted following a rare juvenile jury trial on Dec. 17, 2025, of two counts of aggravated assault. The felony offenses were alleged to have occurred in October 2024 and reportedly involved a gun.

Sloop, 17 at the time of the acquittal, has had multiple run-ins with the law, according to court records, most of which are sealed because of his then juvenile status.

He was represented at trial by Mark Hartman, who had also represented Derrick Del Reed, a Lawrence teen who was tried as an adult and who was acquitted in 2024 of first-degree murder in the shooting death of 14-year-old Kamarjay Shaw.