Wichita man sentenced for killing roommate in ‘reckless gun play’ that was regular game

A 22-year-old Wichita man has been ordered to serve nearly five years in prison for killing his roommate in a shooting that lawyers say was a “tragic accident” resulting from “reckless gun play.”

Peter McKinney was sentenced on Thursday by Sedgwick County District Judge Sean Hatfield, who followed attorneys’ recommendations for 59 months in prison on one count of voluntary manslaughter. Hatfield also ordered McKinney to pay $5,609.63 in restitution to Sebastion E. Crawford’s family for his funeral and other expenses.

Crawford, 25, died around 11 a.m. on July 1 from a gunshot wound to the head after he and Peter McKinney had spent the morning pointing guns at each other.

Apparently, handling firearms in that way was a regular occurrence in Apartment 904 at Village Park Rockborough Apartments, 202 N. Rock Road in Wichita. A probable cause affidavit released in the case says the roommates and McKinney’s father had made a “regular” game of unloading their guns and pointing them at each other while pulling the triggers since the father had moved into the apartment in February.

Wichita police have previously said the shooting happened after an argument, but witnesses referenced in the affidavit said there was no fight.

The day of the shooting, the men were in Crawford’s room, “joking around and making fun of each other,” when they all “unloaded their guns and were pointing them at each other and pulling the trigger,” the affidavit says McKinney told police. They reloaded their guns after a while, but when the horseplay started again between Crawford and Peter McKinney about 30 minutes later, Crawford removed the magazine from his gun then pushed it “along his thigh” to retract the slide so the live round would fall out, the affidavit says.

McKinney “used the same method” to try to clear his gun. But when he aimed at Crawford and pulled the trigger, a live round fired. He later told police he didn’t think the slide on the gun had retracted far enough to remove the bullet and he knew “guns are not toys,” the affidavit says.

Other people, including children, were in the apartment at the time.

Prosecutors initially charged McKinney with second-degree reckless murder but reduced the count to voluntary manslaughter when McKinney entered an Alford plea on July 23. An Alford plea has the same outcome as a guilty plea but allows a defendant to maintain innocence.

The voluntary manslaughter charge says McKinney shot Crawford “knowingly” and “in the heat of passion.”

At McKinney’s sentencing hearing Thursday, defense attorney Steven Mank acknowledged the men were playing with guns the day Crawford died but said no one thought they were loaded.

“This was a tragic, horrible, reckless act,” Mank said, adding that his client was sorry and wanted to reimburse the family for burial expenses. McKinney later gave a tearful apology to the family, saying he has taken responsibility for his roommate’s death.

Sedgwick County assistant district attorney Robert Short said the shooting was a “situation of reckless gun play” that has forced Crawford’s parents to raise his 3-year-old daughter without him.

Crawford’s adoptive mother, Holly Crawford, told the judge her son had previously asked her and her husband to take over guardianship of the girl because he was developmentally disabled and wanted her to have a “good life” after her biological mother was killed by a drunken driver.

Holly Crawford said she and her husband adopted Crawford out of an “abusive and violent” household when he was 7. She described him as a kind, sweet, thoughtful person who looked to others to provide a safe environment because he couldn’t fully care for himself.

She said she hopes McKinney goes on to “find love and safety” and someday understands that “guns are not toys,” adding that she and her husband are “as at peace as we can be” with the plea agreement.

“What he (Crawford) would want is for us to show love. What he would want is a safe environment for all people,” she said.

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