Blood on machine gun linked Wichita man to April American Legion shooting, records show
A 26-year-old Wichita man is facing federal firearms charges tied to a machine gun shooting in the parking lot of an American Legion post in April.
The same American Legion location, 1335 N. Hydraulic in Wichita, was the site of an unrelated fatal shooting in October.
An affidavit filed on Dec. 3 in the federal firearms case said Charles E. Colbert Jr. and three other people arrived at the American Legion post in a white GMC Terrain SUV on April 5. After Colbert went into the building and later left with the group, he drove through the parking lot, firing multiple shots. Colbert and the others ran away after the SUV wrecked, the affidavit said. The location of the wreck was not listed.
Authorities found several shell casings in the SUV and two guns, including an unregistered Glock “with an obvious machine gun switch attached” that had blood and a bullet strike on it, the affidavit said. DNA testing of the blood matched Colbert; a detective later confirmed he had a scar on his left hand consistent with a bullet strike from the gun, according to the affidavit.
At the time the detective confirmed the scar, Colbert was already in trouble for possessing distribution-level amounts of cocaine and fentanyl. In that case, authorities said Colbert led Kansas Highway Patrol Troopers on a high-speed chase through Pratt County on Nov. 19 after they pulled him over for having window tint that was too dark, an affidavit said.
When troopers searched the car after Colbert’s arrest, they found a two-pound brick of cocaine and more than a pound and a half of powdered fentanyl wrapped in plastic sacks inside a duffle bag in the trunk, according to the affidavit. Colbert denied knowing the drugs were in the car, but investigators learned he got them in Phoenix after coordinating the trip with other members of a drug trafficking organization, the affidavit said.
He had a felony pick up order from Wichita police in the American Legion shooting case when he was arrested, the affidavit said.
On Wednesday, a federal grand jury indicted Colbert on one count of illegal possession of a machine gun and one count of being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm, a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Kansas said.
He was indicted on one count of possession of fentanyl with the intent to distribute in the drug case on Nov. 25, court records showed.
This story was originally published December 11, 2025 at 12:50 PM.
