Updated: Sunday, Sept. 17, 8 a.m.
A Shawnee youth pastor and teacher is charged with trying to stab his wife and children to death and set their family home on fire.
Matthew Lee Richards, 41, is charged with five counts of attempted premeditated first-degree murder and one count of aggravated arson with risk of bodily harm.
The charges stem from a fire and disturbance at a Shawnee home early Saturday morning in the 6600 block of Goode Drive, that left six people, including four children, with injuries.
The six victims sustained injuries of “varying degrees” during the incident, Shawnee Police said in a news release Saturday.
Richards has been identified as the husband of one of the victims and the father of the five other victims.
Police say three of the victims — an adult woman and two children — remained hospitalized Saturday receiving treatment.
Three other victims, a 19-year-old male and two other children, have been released from the hospital.
Richards is now in custody at the Johnson County Adult Detention Center at New Century on $5 million bond, according to an online booking log.
He is set to be arraigned in Johnson County District Court on Monday.
The incident
Recorded radio traffic from Saturday morning indicates that at least two people called 911 from inside the house.
Both callers reported a fire in the basement and someone armed with a knife who was attacking people.
Firefighters from Shawnee, Overland Park and Lenexa responded to the area and waited for police to confirm that the scene was safe for them to enter.
Due to the number of injuries, a second alarm response was added, bringing in additional firefighters.
Firefighters discovered a fire had been set in the home’s basement and extinguished it, according to a Shawnee Police statement.
Ultimately, seven people, including Richards, were transported by Johnson County Med-Act ambulances to local hospitals with injuries.
Charging documents allege Richards tried to stab his wife and four of his children and also intentionally set the fire in the home.
Richards is a youth pastor at a Shawnee church
Richards is the children’s pastor at Crossroads Christian Church, 5855 Renner Road, in Shawnee, where he has been since 2016, according to an online bio on the church’s website.
The church’s senior pastor Kurt Witten released a statement on Facebook Saturday:
“We are aware of the situation involving our Children’s Pastor, Matt Richards. We are gathering more information and will have a full statement at a later time. Please be respectful of this situation, as it is still an ongoing investigation. And please join us in praying for the Richards family during this time,” Witten wrote.
According to his church biography, Richards and his wife have been married since 2003 and have five children — four boys and one girl.
He is also a teacher at a private Lenexa school
An online staff biography also shows that Richards has been an English teacher at Christ Prep Academy, 15700 W. 87th Street Parkway, in Lenexa since 2020.
His staff bio says one of his children recently graduated from the school and three of his sons currently attend there.
Before coming to Christ Prep, Richards taught at an international school in Austria and a school in Dallas, Texas.
According to the bio, he teaches 7th grade English.
Mike Frizzell contributed to this report.
