Seventeen people were victimised in little more than an hour in central Topeka on Wednesday afternoon, October 28 — three of them stabbed, homes broken into with small children inside, and a 70-year-old woman attacked in a public park — and the man police accuse, Adam James Schwegman, 47, is in the Shawnee County Jail on a $3 million bond. Now court records examined this weekend have added a second story underneath the first: in June 2024 Schwegman was charged in the same county with a felony aggravated battery involving a deadly weapon, and in January 2025 that charge was resolved as a misdemeanour under a plea agreement, with a suspended jail sentence, a year of supervised probation and court-ordered evaluations. All of the October 28 offences remain allegations; Schwegman is presumed innocent unless and until he is proven guilty.

Source: This Is Topeka, court-records investigation, Oct. 31

The Topeka Police Department's own updated count, released Thursday, is 17 victims across five separate incidents between about 12:05 p.m. and 1:10 p.m. on Wednesday, with four people injured and the other 13 — including nine children — not physically harmed. Police have said they do not believe the suspect knew any of the victims, city spokeswoman Kimberly Qualls told KSNT.

Source: Topeka Police Department update, Oct. 29, via WIBW and KSNT

An hour of violence across central Topeka

At approximately 12:07 p.m. on Wednesday, officers were dispatched to the 1600 block of Southwest Fillmore Street, where two people had suffered stab wounds; both were taken to hospital with injuries described as life-threatening. Police subsequently identified further incidents along Southwest Fillmore, including burglaries and an attempted burglary in the 1400 and 1500 blocks. In one residence, five children were among those identified as victims, including a four-month-old infant; police reported the children were not physically injured. At approximately 12:59 p.m., officers responded to another stabbing in the 600 block of Southwest Third Street, where a 50-year-old woman was injured and three young children were also among the people identified as victims, though authorities said they were not physically harmed. Minutes later, police responded to Ward-Meade Park, where a 70-year-old woman had suffered minor injuries in another alleged attack.

The bystander who tripped the fleeing suspect

Near Ward-Meade Park, the violence reportedly ended because a bystander stepped in. Ron Hubbard told WIBW-TV that he and another man noticed the suspect after the reported attack at the park. Hubbard said he confronted the man and tripped him, causing him to fall into the grass and drop a knife. Hubbard then kicked the weapon away while another person helped restrain the suspect. The man reportedly escaped their grasp, but police apprehended him soon afterwards, bringing to an end a series of incidents that had unfolded across several neighbourhoods in little more than an hour.

What he was booked on — and what is not yet filed

Schwegman was booked into the Shawnee County Jail late on Wednesday — jail records put the booking at 10:55 p.m. — on 16 counts, according to jail records reported by WIBW: four counts of aggravated battery, three counts of aggravated burglary, one count each of attempted aggravated burglary, rape, attempted rape and theft, two counts of aggravated sexual battery, two counts of aggravated endangering a child, and one count of mistreating a dependent adult or elder person. The sexual-assault counts are allegations reported by police and have not been tested in court. At an initial court appearance on Thursday, a judge set his total bond at $3 million — three bonds of $1 million each, WIBW reported. As of reporting published on Friday, formal charges in the new case had not yet been filed, which means the booking counts describe what he was arrested on, not yet what prosecutors will ultimately charge.

The 2024 case: a felony, then a plea to a misdemeanour

The earlier case began on June 19, 2024. A criminal complaint filed five days later in Shawnee County District Court — case SN-2024-CR-001055, reviewed by This Is Topeka — accused Schwegman of knowingly causing bodily harm to a named man, Philip Owen Schreiner, alleging that a deadly weapon was involved or that the manner of the attack could have inflicted serious injury or death. The offence was classified as a severity level 7 person felony under Kansas law, and the filing was designated a domestic-violence case. Prosecutors requested a $10,000 bond, with restrictions prohibiting contact with the victim or witnesses and prohibiting possession of weapons. The complaint does not describe the specific weapon allegedly used.

On January 17, 2025, a plea agreement signed by Schwegman, his attorney and a prosecutor amended the felony charge to Class B misdemeanour battery. Under the agreement he pleaded guilty to the reduced offence, received a six-month jail sentence suspended in favour of supervised probation — with credit for 96 days already served and one year of supervised probation beginning January 17, 2025 — and was ordered to undergo evaluations for drug or alcohol use and mental-health concerns and to follow any resulting recommendations. Conditions included prohibitions on possessing firearms or dangerous weapons, requirements to report changes in residence or employment, and restrictions on contact with the victim. His scheduled probationary term had ended by January 2026 — nine months before Wednesday's attacks.

What happens next

Three questions now run in parallel. First, the charging decision: prosecutors must turn the 16 booking counts into formal charges, or change them, in Shawnee County District Court. Second, the condition of the two Fillmore Street victims whose injuries were described as life-threatening; no deaths have been reported. Third, the questions the 2024 records raise but do not answer — why the felony was reduced, and whether the evaluations and probation conditions were fulfilled. Those are questions for the district attorney's office and the court file, and this report will be updated when either answers them.