Man shot with live rounds during Cowtown gunfight slated to get $500,000 from Wichita

A man who was shot with live rounds by a fellow performer during a staged gunfight at the Old Cowtown Museum in September 2020 is expected to get $500,000 from the city.

The Wichita City Council will vote on the settlement Tuesday.

The victim, who was 24 at the time of the incident, was struck 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, and required surgery.

“The claimant has offered to accept a lump sum payment of $500,000 as full settlement of all of the claimant’s claims against the City of Wichita,” a city staff report reads.

The historic museum receives more than $900,000 annually from the city. The agenda report notes that paying the victim, whose name has not been made public, does not constitute an admission of liability from the city.

“It is merely a settlement to resolve a disputed claim,” it says.

Robert Hartung Jr. of Winfield was sentenced to three years probation last October after pleading no contest to one count of aggravated battery.

Hartung 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, according to an affidavit. Although at least two reenactors carried shotguns that night, video footage of the event shows Hartung firing two shots in the area where police found the expended Winchester rounds.

In a motion seeking probation, Hartung’s defense attorney wrote that he 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.