‘No one checked his guns.’ Reenactor took live ammo from home to Cowtown show: affidavit
A reenactor who allegedly shot a fellow performer during a staged gunfight at the Old Cowtown Museum in September told authorities he loaded his shotgun with rounds he brought from home that he assumed were blanks — but police found only live ammunition in his gun and truck that night, according to an affidavit released by a Sedgwick County judge last week.
Robert Hartung Jr., who has been charged with aggravated battery in the case but has yet to make a first appearance in court, told authorities that he volunteered at the museum and was given permission to participate in the Sept. 18 gunfight but that he was not a member of either group putting it on. He told police that he brought his own guns — a shotgun and a revolver — and his own shotgun rounds to the performance but that the event’s organizers gave him blank rounds to use in his revolver.
When he arrived at the museum that night, “there was not any type of formal safety briefing” that he knew of and “no one checked his guns,” which he loaded himself, the affidavit says he told police.
Hartung said he was told to ride into the reenactment area on the side of an antique car, and that when the shooting started, he fired two rounds from his shotgun then switched to his revolver.
He told authorities he didn’t know anyone had been hurt until after the gunfire stopped, the affidavit says.
A 24-year-old man participating in the reenactment was inside of a museum building called the Trapper’s Cabin when he was hit in the head, face and upper body with the live shotgun rounds. His injuries included a punctured aorta and pellets lodged in his skull and left eye socket that police have previously said were not life-threatening but required hospitalization and surgery.
The victim was wounded shortly after 9 p.m. on Sept. 18, about two hours into a Roaring ‘20s event hosted by Cowtown, 1865 W. Museum Blvd. in Wichita. An event lineup posted on Facebook indicates the shooting occurred during a performance called “Coppers raiding the Bootleggers” at the Trapper’s Cabin, which is located on the east end of the museum property.
During his police interview, Hartung told authorities he has extensive experience with reenactments — including past involvement with WWII battles, 1920s shows and Western gunfights around the Midwest — and had even been in charge of some, the affidavit says.
He told authorities that “he loaded his 12 gauge Winchester shotgun with what he ‘assumes’ are blanks that he brought with him” to the Cowtown museum on Sept. 18, the affidavit says. Although at least two reenactors were armed with shotguns that night, video footage of the event shows Hartung firing two shots in the area where police found the expended Winchester rounds.
Officers discovered more live rounds in Hartung’s shotgun and in a sleeve “designed to fit on the buttstock of a shotgun” that was in his truck in the museum parking lot. But there were no blanks in the gun, the vehicle or on Hartung that night, the affidavit says. The police investigation found no other live ammunition on site.
Although authorities have previously said they thought the shooting was accidental, prosecutors allege in court filings that Hartung acted recklessly. Authorities who investigated the shooting wrote in the affidavit that while the shotgun blanks and live rounds that Hartung had are the same color, they look and feel different and have different markings stamped on them.
Hartung is scheduled to appear in Sedgwick County District Court on the felony aggravated battery charge later this month, records show. A lawyer listed for him in court records did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
