2 men arrested for robberies of church leaders, beating of pries - KCTV5

Two men have been charged in the beating of a priest that happened last weekend and two robberies.

Ladarious Barkers, 19, and Marvin Moore, 20, were both charged with aggravated robbery, aggravated battery, burglary and theft in connection with the Oct. 21 attack on Father Thomas Kearns and theft of his vehicle at the Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church.

A second robbery happened on Thursday. A third happened on Friday, with the victim of that robbery being another pastor.

Barkers has two additional counts of aggravated robbery in connection with the second and third incidents. Moore has one additional count of aggravated robbery for the third incident that involved the pastor.

Police say at least two of the crimes are connected. Reverend Louis Sipple with the Timothy Baptist Church says the same two men who robbed Kearns also robbed him on Friday. 

After that robbery, police tracked Barkers and Moore to a house in the area near 27th and Garfield. They were arrested after a standoff that lasted for several hours. 

RELATED: New information about Friday standoff that followed robbery of pastor

Both men are in the Wyandotte County Jail. Bond is set at $300,000.

Both men are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Meanwhile, the pastors are back at their pulpits. 

“I'm glad that they caught them so they'll be off the street and won't hurt anyone else," Sipple said. He also said he recognized the men in the mugshots as the men who ambushed him. 

The incident happened outside Timothy Baptist Church on Friday. In broad daylight, two men attacked him in the church parking lot. Sipple says two men jumped on him and started beating and kicking him. After that, they took his wallet and phone. 

“I could've been dead and gone!" he said.

Two days later, though, the reverend and his wife are focused on forgiveness. 

"The Lord let me live on! I'm just thankful!" he said. "I just think it was two young men that are just misguided, you know. Need the Lord in their life."

"Something is missing in those two young boys," said Gloria Sipple, the reverend's wife. "There's no love there."

It takes strength to heal from an incident like the one Sipple endured, but even more strength to forgive. 

“I'm really praying for them," he said, "that the Lord will change their life.”

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