Investigators Still Wondering How 3 People Injured During Wild West Shootout Show
- Posted on June 19, 2011 at 2:45pm by
Jonathon M. Seidl
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It was supposed to be a reenactment of a wild west shootout in Hill City, SD. It ended up being all too real.
Three people were injured, possibly shot, during the show, and investigators are still trying go figure out how it happened.
“It was the end of the show and the two behind me had started yelling that they were shot and then blood started spraying out everywhere. We are all trying to figure out how it happened, but we don’t know,” Phyllis Masten, the videographer for the show, told KOTA-TV.
The guns are supposed to be filled with blanks and the show’s actors apparently watch each other load them. Still, something went horribly wrong.
KOTA posted some pictures from the scene on its Facebook page:
According to KEVN-TV, investigators are looking into the possibility that either a gun “blew up” or that the injuries were caused by errant wads from the blanks. It is unclear if the injuries were caused by actual bullets.
KEVN reports the victims have been identified and their injuries are not life-threatening:
Whatever happened, three people were sent to the hospital with what deputies called “non-life-threatening” injuries. They were 52-year-old Jose Pruneda of Alliance, Nebraska, 65-year-old Carrol Knutson of Burchwood, Minnesota, and 48-year-old John Ellis of South Connellsville, Pennsylvania. Pruneda and Ellis have been discharged. Knutson is still hospitalized in fair condition.
A collection of videos posted on YouTube appears to show the reenactment group putting on the show earlier last week:
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Comments (59)
g.prunty
Posted on June 20, 2011 at 1:46pmno harm in retelling old west in this manner it was a rough time in our country besides they looked like old drunks traveling the rails they must settle or pick up a dime somewhere ……brother could you some goodwill for an old 49r
Report Post »dragonfire420
Posted on June 20, 2011 at 1:31pmGuns are not toys..What these guys are doing is arming the leftist anti gun idiots with facts as to why people are too stupid to own firearms.. D=DISGRACEFUL, DUMB AND DEFEATING!!!!
Report Post »I hate these things.. after putting in 20 years I find it repugnant they would enjoy this folly.. acting like children..maybe we should load live rounds and not tell them and let them play shoot-em-up? It certainly would make an impression on these little arthritic minds! that’s my 2 cents..
Arizona4Ever
Posted on June 20, 2011 at 11:43amWell-said Creestof.
Report Post »UlyssesP
Posted on June 20, 2011 at 8:54am(SH) It happens…..
Report Post »On March 31, 1993, while making The Crow, one of the film’s villains was supposed to fire a pistol at Brandon Lee as he walked onto the scene.
Because the movie’s second unit was running behind schedule, they decided to make dummy cartridges (cartridges that outwardly appear to be functional but contain no propellant or primers) from real cartridges by pulling out the bullets, dumping out the propellant and reinserting the bullets. However, the team neglected to remove the primers, which, if fired, could still produce just enough force to push the bullet out of the cartridge and into the barrel (a squib load). At some point prior to the fatal scene, the live primer in one of the improperly constructed dummy rounds was discharged by an unknown person while in the pistol, leaving the bullet stuck in the barrel.
This malfunction went unnoticed by the crew, and the same gun was later reloaded with blank cartridges and used in the scene in which Lee was shot. When the first blank cartridge was fired, the stuck bullet was propelled out of the barrel and struck Lee in the abdomen, lodging in his spine. He fell down instantly.
(SH) It happens.
VLADTEPES
Posted on June 20, 2011 at 7:46amPretty bad shots, I’d say..
Report Post »inferno
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 10:26pmWhy do people rush to the ocean to watch large waves, and end up getting swept away ? Why do people stand too close to the road in road races and get struck by careening vehicles ? They do it for the same reason people stand in the line of or near exploding powder in wild west reenactments and are injured. The key word … exploding. The reason they do all these things….their stupid !
Report Post »Two Rivers
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 9:17pmOne of the first rules is to never point any gun at anything you dont intend on shooting. To many damn idiots in this world
Report Post »libertytreecaretaker
Posted on June 20, 2011 at 3:22amExactly that is what I have always been taught. Never pointed any kind of gun at anything your not willing to destroy! End of story.
Report Post »illuminoddy
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 8:59pmblanks kill
put a blank filed gun to your temple and pull the trigger, you will die, no question
Blanks killed Bruce Lee’s Son, Brandon
Blanks fire wads, a wad is a projectile
if a wad was too old, got hard somehow due to moisture or climate or storage or handling, that becomes lethal, at greater distances
pointing a gun at someone with a blank in it is as dangerous as pointing any loaded weapon at anyone.. its stupid, and should only be attempted by trained stunt men and professionals
when blanks first came out, they didnt point them at other peoples eyes.. they pointed them slightly off to the side of the body, as any professional fire-arms handler would
they make blanks far to readily available, any dork with a camera or an idea can get them
they should require a license and training
Report Post »STAR SPANGLED SPAMMER
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 8:03pmIt’s the “Wild West” Show…Come on people! I give them kudos for making it so realistic, that’s awesome. Wonder what they will do next week. By the way?….which way is the brothel?
Report Post »go2gym
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 8:00pmThey had road cones back in the Wild West? LOL
Report Post »TheGreyPiper
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 7:39pmI bet it was a couple of leftard activist co(ksuckers who deliberately injured themselves to discredit people who believe in the Bill of Rights.
Leftards are insane like that, attention wh0res every one. Look at the story below about the fa6 co(keaters spraying glitter on politicians, since they obviously don’t have the intelligence to carry on a coherent discussion with someone who disagrees with them.
Report Post »BONETRAUMA
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 6:26pmMost of you assume the wounds were caused by the guns the actors were firing. Perhaps there are other guns or sling shots ect… involved.
Report Post »Socialism_Is_The_New_Black
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 5:58pmThis stinks of some anti-gun nutcase tampering one way or another.
Report Post »Sicialian Eyeball
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 5:35pmIt was sold as a real life shoot out. Guess they werent kidding
Report Post »John 1776
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 5:34pmMaybe the bullets came from a gun not involved in the show as in someone used the show as a decoy to settle a grudge. Who knows!
Report Post »NOBALONEY
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 5:09pmCongressional hearings to have cowboys use water pistols?
Report Post »flattop
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 4:42pmToo bad someone ended up hurt by such an embarrassingly stupid routine to begin with.
Report Post »nomercy63
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 4:39pmYou should carefully check these things!!!!!! All blanks should be color identified so on! Terrible thing that a little more caution could have avoided!
Report Post »ErinLindsey
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 4:32pmBlanks can still kill you. Google “Jon-Erik Hexum”. (of course, what Hexum did was not only an example that blanks can kill you, but it was a classic example of how to get a Darwin Award.)
Report Post »BrianA
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 4:22pmfrom my understanding after brandon lee was shot there was a request in the film industry to make it impossible for that to happen again…so gun makers and propmakers that have the ability to modify guns make the barrel an incorrect size so an actual round can’t load, but you still get the muzzle flash and recoil from the blank.
I don’t think any paper wad would cause that kind of injury. I doubt these guys are using guns designed for blanks…if anything somebody probably accidentally used a live round and “planned to be careful with it” or a low power home reload round they thought would work like a blank.
And rational man…it sounds like you don’t like reenactments…so the wild west reenactments are dumb, civil war reenactments are dumb, wwII reenactments are dumb, the guys that fly old war planes at air shows are dumb.
Report Post »Rational Man
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 7:26pmNope! Just drugstore cowboys playing dress-up and pretending to shoot people in ridiculous Hollywood fast draw shootouts. It‘s a ’living’ dime store novel. It spits on the memory and reputation of real people by reducing them to a bunch of whiskey swilling ‘Hollywood’ gunslingers.
Report Post »I admit I played shoot-em-up when I was a kid with my cap guns…….But then I grew up!
And now someone is injured.
TheGreyPiper
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 7:40pmLook! It tries to talk, just like a real boy!
Report Post »Baikonur
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 4:10pmLovely. Let’s hand out Bibles and guns to every nut. Hurrah for freedom! We are #1!
Report Post »chips1
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 4:47pmInstead of a gun, I think you should use an air hose and put the end in your rear and blow your brains out. Just an opinion.
Report Post »chris3
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 6:49pmhave you seen a bunch of saudi’s or egyption men on a sat. night?we’ve got nothing on them,you can “choose” not to protect yourself or your family,and put your “faith” in big brother to watch out for you a the while saying what a rotten place this is,it’s a free country right? U.S.A.!..U.S.A!…U.S.A!
Report Post »Progressive Wrecking Crew
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 3:55pmThis is like right out of a movie when the blanks are traded for real bullets when their heads are turned for one minute. Blanks have no tip on the bullet or projectile but has a crimped end in its place.so they’re nearly impossible to load accidentally.
Blanks are like the empty shells you see on the ground after firing a loaded weapon. Same thing with the powder and a crimped end.
Someone loaded bullets in the guns, it‘s who that’s the question and that’s that. It was no accident, unless they‘re all so inebriated when they loaded em they couldn’t tell the difference would be the ONLY way.
Report Post »Dont-hate-on-me-2
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 4:28pmthe rounds could have been defective or tampered with. its fairly easy to slip a few small rounds stell balls in there from some bird shot. But i agree something was really wrong with the ammo thats alot of blood, looks more like a hole was put in one of them not some random pice of the jacket that blew off, and the fact it hit two different people is totally bizare
Report Post »Honest Abe
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 3:51pmRule number one. Don”t play with guns. Why would they have real bullets anywhere near the blanks. Someone should loose their guns and go to jail. This gives law abiding, responsible gun owners look bad.
Report Post »ThoreauHD
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 3:36pmNever seen a western reenactment in a parking lot with safety cones and suv’s.
Report Post »Rational Man
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 3:42pmWhat a bunch of ‘DUDES’.
Report Post »Dont-hate-on-me-2
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 4:23pmwell how many times has client eastwood shot someone in a parking lot in a movie, or some of our oer paid actors had a shoot out on a freeway, you guys arn’t very equal here. you judge these guys harshly but arn’t looking at the industry itself. So, from now on i expect you will criticize all movies where people us blanks or play shoot em up. thats all this is a movie, just played out infront of people and not a movie camera. Im just trying to throw it out there so you can think about it. To me it looks like most of you have not thought about the big picture of fake shoot outs.
Report Post »Rational Man
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 7:08pmJust keep posting, Dont-hate-on-me-2.
Report Post »Your getting more funny with every post!
Wdawg
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 3:31pmidiots
Report Post »Rational Man
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 3:40pmAgreed!
Report Post »Guys that do those silly little shootout games are ridiculous. I’m into guns, horses, cowboying, the western way of life and all, (I live it), but these dumb guys that like to play dress-up and pretend to shoot other people are a joke to folks that work stock and use guns for what they were intended for. Not playing shoot-um-up on a city street to draw attention to themselves.
Now somebody is hurt!…………………
oldasdirt
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 3:47pmThey call this ‘Wild West”,,,But dosent this stuff happen every day and night in Chicago or Washington D C ?
Report Post »Dont-hate-on-me-2
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 3:57pmRational Man
Report Post »I doubt you are a cowboy at all, like wise i do know cowboys who love to play shoot em up however, they use paintball guns .Never seen a blank break the skin before let alone wound a person unless they were defictive from the maker, or tampered with.. All the deaths i have seen from movies where they play shootem up which we all love so much( i dont hear you complianing about them) Use blanks 100% of the time and we have all heard of the horrible incidents with live ammo being used instead and those crimes have never been solved. My theory
ReallyAUnionGuy
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 4:05pm“Idiots” is a little strong, there out there entertaining the folks, I could not hear from the video a lot of what they were saying, academy award winning actors, of course not, some guys having fun doing something for tourist, something they have done lots of times…yes. Just because something goes wrong does not make them idiots…. dang don’t be so harsh. The Dakota’s are steeped in that kind of history.
Report Post »watchmany2k
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 4:15pm“blanks” are a misnomer.
They still use gunpowder, the plastic and wadding can still move at a decent speed.
and even the brass can send out a shard that acts like a projectile.
I know from using a “starter” pistol, it is clearly marked on the “blank” box,
that one still should not point it at anyone.
and you can get burned from the powder flash.
Rule #1 Nothing is “safe” or taken for granted with firearms.
Report Post »chazman
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 6:05pmOh, I‘ll just use these ’old’ .45′s. They’re duds anyway! Sorry guys, but that’s a lot of blood to be caused by just wadding for blank rounds. I hope we get the outcome story on this … anyway,
What a pack of Ultra Maroons!
Report Post »The_Almighty_Creestof
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 7:06pmIdiots? I suppose all those thousands of Civil War re-enactors attempting to show people of today what it was like are idiots? I suppose the 50,000 members of SAS (Single Action Shooting Society) & CAS (Cowboy Action Shooting) who dress up in “old west” attire and host competitive shooting tournaments across the nation and donate tons of money and time to the NRA, are idiots? I suppose the actors who attract 100,000+ people each year to “Ol’ Tombstone” in Arizona and delight old and young alike with realistic tales of the old west with the precision of Hollywood stuntmen, are idiots?
Or maybe you two are a couple of old farts, no longer capable of feeling the wonder of pretending or using your imagination. You two ought to grow up…and be a kid again for a bit.
BTW, errors do happen even with professionals…especially when their profession is not weapons and they choose to not take it serious enough.
Brandon Lee…killed in 1993 when people on the set failed to show the proper respect and care when dealing with real firearms…because they were only using blanks.
Jon-erik Hexum…killed between scenes on the show “Cover Up” when he joked around and pointed his .44 magnum handgun to his head (filled with blanks) and pulled the trigger…the wad was enough to shatter a portion of his skull and shove the fragments into his brain.
Also, a lot of cowboys & hunters today still “cut” their shotgun shells…making the wad deadlier than the pellets at times.
Report Post »Rational Man
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 7:16pm@ The_Almighty_Creestof
Well you almost know what you are talking about…….almost!
Report Post »When guys ‘cut’ their shot shells, it is not the wad that does the damage. The whole top two thirds of the shell, (the hull, shot, wad, buffer), is turned into one solid projectile. Quite a bit different than just a plastic or paper wad.
And yes, they are all idiots!
Nathaniel Horn
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 7:27pmI live in a Northern California town where once a year we have reenactments, stagecoach robberies and the whole town gets in on the fun of finding the stashed ‘loot’. There are prizes, pancakes and hamburgers. People have fun! It’s been going on for years and years and is a hoot.
But the best part of the whole thing is when transplants or visitors from the San Francisco area or Southern California dive for cover in fear for their lives. LoL! Every year there are increasingly loud complaints but we keep on doin’ it. And we are going to continue doing it because up here everybody shoots a gun and it doesn’t mean a gang fight is going on, it means that ‘normal’, responsible citizens are exercising their natural born rights! In fact the average person up here is a citizen rifleman just like it is supposed to be. So when a gunshot is heard, it is as normal as putting wet clothes in the dryer… :) Just like it used to be everywhere in this increasingly pathetic country. Why do people have to piss and moan about everything? The only injuries here are from city fools getting gravel rash from trying to crawl under a car where a cat wouldn’t fit! LMAO!
My wife made the observation that the injuries in this article could have been caused by someone shooting real bullets (or maybe bbs since it was non life threatening) using the ‘cover’ of the blank fire. I thought that was a pretty good theory. It’ll be interesting to find out what really happened.
Report Post »The_Almighty_Creestof
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 7:31pm@ Rational Man Maybe you should join us then? With your tendency toward moronic views…you could easily rise up and become our king.
I get the feeling your cowboy lifestyle consists of volunteering to watch the sheep a little too often.
Report Post »Rational Man
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 7:41pmGee, I’m sorry I emarrassed you when you were trying so hard to sound so smart and all.
Report Post »I’m sorry all I left you with is insults for a reply.
Might not look so foolish if you just didn’t reply at all……maybe?
The_Almighty_Creestof
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 7:57pmSorry…but you missed. Maybe your sophisticated version of PeeWee Herman’s “I know you are, but what am I?”…just doesn’t work?
But, yeah…I made an error in word choice as to the actual projectile. Glad you caught that because it made all the difference in the world and really made me feel inferior to your gigantic intellect.
But I guess that is why you are a “cowboy”….lol. Oh, forgive me…another error on my part…you are a REAL cowboy…LOLX2.
Report Post »Rational Man
Posted on June 19, 2011 at 8:19pmNever said I am a cowboy. Cowboy is an occupation. Not a frame of mind, not a barstool buckaroo, not an ‘urban’ cowboy or just anyone who wears a hat and boots. I cowboyed when I was in my teens and early twenties in Colorado and Wyoming. I am a long ways from those days now. I still mess with horses. It doesn’t matter who or what I am anyway. Goofy pretend shootouts are not a true depiction of ‘old west’ cowboys or any other kind of cowboys. If it was left up to Hollwood and dreamers, everyone would think that all ‘cowboys’ did is drink whiskey from dawn to dusk, do no work, gamble, dally with prostitutes and shoot at eachother all day. Maybe I’m a realist or something and that is why I hate this kind of crap. Some people watch some movies and think they know all there is to know about the “Old West” and “Cowboys”. Sorry, that ain’t right………….
I don’t know what you mean by that Peewee Herman stuff. Was he a Hollywood ‘cowboy’ or something?
Report Post »SgtB
Posted on June 20, 2011 at 8:24amI say that there was another gunman there. Pistol blanks don’t have a “wad” to shoot out. That means that if anything did shoot out it would have to be part of the brass of the casing. Unlikely at best.
Report Post »TomFerrari
Posted on June 20, 2011 at 9:52amQuick,
Somebody pass some knee-jerk reaction laws and take away some Constitutional rights!
I‘m thinking someone had their spent ’blank‘ cartridges by somebody else who wasn’t aware they were to be blanks, or who just made a mistake and reloaded them with bullets.
Complacency is the real culprit here. The person with the gun is ultimately responsible to make certain they are using the correct ammo and using the weapon responsibly.
Report Post »TheLeftMadeMeRight
Posted on June 20, 2011 at 11:07amIn a town that lives and dies on tourism dollars, the wild west show is a big attraction. All firearms are dangerous, blanks or live rounds. Many Hollywood actors have been injured and one was killed when he picked up a prop gun loaded with blanks and pointed and fired it at his own head. Ah, no bullet comes out but 8 to 10 inches of flame does. Now that’s stupid!
Report Post »banjarmon
Posted on June 20, 2011 at 11:47amWere the blanks made IN CHINA??
Report Post »shakedowncrews
Posted on June 20, 2011 at 3:48pmRational Man, don’t be such a moron. These things are done for the tourists to reinact a few gunfights or just entertain. Don’t knock these actors for just having fun. I’ve seen these many times here in Colorado: in Golden, in Leadville, Durango…these aren’t “wanna be cowboys”, they are just good old folks who enjoy reenactments just like other actors like the stage. And then you get the history buffs helping reinact civil war battles and there’s nothing wrong with it, in fact, it’s good to keep the memory alive.
You‘re just a bitter old toot with nothing better to do than just complain and insult people you don’t know.
Report Post »godhead
Posted on June 20, 2011 at 8:49pmLand o’ Goshen, these conservative mens don’t seem to have a very good grip on the whole gun thing. Cheney shoots his friends in the face with a shotgun. Tea party dudes dropping guns on the ground at rallies. Now these fake cowboys winging innocents at Wild West shows.
I think maybe before you go off banging the 2nd Amendment drum and making veiled threats about all your arms and ammo, you all might want to go take a gun safety class. Do it for the children.
Report Post »SoDakUSA
Posted on June 22, 2011 at 11:09amNot sure if idiots is the proper word…we are out here in the middle of nowhere and these are the things we do…History is an important part of our culture. Sadly, something went wrong here and it’s dissappointing that people on this thread are acting the way they are. I know we are all entiltled to free speech, but once a upon a time, respect was a value that was spread throughout this Country.
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