Hearing delayed for man accused of choking baby at Overland Park Wal-Mart
Date Published:
01/19/2017
Publication: The Kansas City Star (Kansas City MO)
Oleh Zhownirovych is accused of grabbing a woman’s 4-month-old daughter last October at an Overland Park Wal-Mart and choking her before he was stopped. Johnson County Sheriff’s Office
The preliminary hearing for a former church pastor from New Jersey charged with choking a stranger’s baby inside an Overland Park Wal-Mart was re-set Thursday until March.
Oleh Zhownirovych, 54, of Clifton, N.J., is charged in Johnson County District Court with aggravated kidnapping, aggravated battery and battery.
He has been in custody since the incident last Oct. 19 at the store in the 7700 block of Frontage Road.
The mother of the 4-month-old girl was in a checkout line when a man she didn’t know grabbed her daughter’s car seat and began to choke the baby before others intervened and held him until police arrived.
Zhownirovych is the former pastor of a Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Clifton. Authorities have not said why he was in the Kansas City area.
Thursday’s scheduled preliminary hearing was canceled and re-set for March 9.
Tony Rizzo: 816-234-4435, @trizzkc