Gunfight reenactor who used live rounds at Cowtown, shot fellow performer, gets probation

A historical reenactor who injured a fellow performer when he fired live rounds during a staged gunfight at the Old Cowtown Museum two years ago will serve three years of probation after pleading no contest to one count of aggravated battery, according to a note in court records.

Robert Hartung Jr., 65, of Winfield, was sentenced Monday morning by Sedgwick County District Judge Jeffrey Syrios over a 24-year-old man’s shooting on Sept. 18, 2020. Hartung told authorities he loaded his 12-gauge Winchester shotgun with rounds he brought from home before participating in the reenactment during a Roaring ‘20s event at the museum, 1865 W. Museum Blvd. in Wichita. He told police he assumed the rounds were blanks. The shooting happened around 9:05 p.m.

The 24-year-old man wounded was inside a museum building call the Trapper’s Cabin when he was struck in the head, face and upper body with Hartung’s live rounds. The man’s injuries included a punctured aorta and pellets lodged in his skull and left eye socket.

Wichita police have said Hartung was the only person armed with live rounds that night; officers found no blanks on him or in his shotgun or vehicle, according to court documents.

Hartung’s conviction, a felony, prohibits him from owning, possessing or using any firearms and other weapons going forward.

His defense attorney wrote in a motion seeking the probation sentence that Hartung had a more than 20-year history of safely participating in historical reenactments, had no gun accidents until the Sept. 18, 2020, event, and had used the live rounds by mistake.

He entered the plea on Sept. 6. The probation carries an underlying prison sentence for 32 months.