The Emporia Gazette

February 12, 2012

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Authorities continue to search for three men in connection with the shooting death Saturday morning of an Americus man.

Beau Arndt, 18, was killed while hunting geese in northwest Lyon County with two friends. According to Lyon County Sheriff Gary Eichorn, the three hunters had placed goose decoys in a farm field and were hidden in personal blinds.

Eichorn said the blinds allow one person to lay up off the field and be covered. The goal is to be camouflaged and the hunters had added strips of white cloth and sheets to blend in to the snow-covered field.

As the hunters waited, a pickup truck drove slowly by and a rifle was fired at the field. Arndt was hit and pronounced dead at the scene.

Eichorn speculated that the goal of the shooter was to spook the birds into flight, unaware they were decoys. Whatever the reason, Eichorn said, both using rifles to hunt waterfowl and shooting from roadways or vehicles are illegal.

Witnesses in the area described a truck they’d seen as a late 1970s model Ford pickup with a standard cab and Shawnee County license plate. Eichorn says that a witness now believes there were three men inside, not the four officials originally thought.

The cab and front end of the truck are red; the pickup bed is orange. The rear of the bed has an old Ford logo described as three blocks — one large, one medium and one small.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office at 342-5545, Lyon County Crimestoppers at 342-2273 or 1-800-KS CRIME.