'You don't want to know': Man told neighbor to call 911 moments before NKY fatal shooting
Just before 33-year-old Robert Hartman allegedly shot and killed a man outside his Covington home on Halloween, he asked a neighbor to call 911, officials said.
The reason why? “You don’t want to know,” he told her, Kenton County Commonwealth’s Attorney Rob Sanders said during a preliminary hearing Tuesday.
Hartman is charged with murder in connection with the fatal shooting of 51-year-old Patrick Sand of Covington.
When police arrived at Hartman's home in the 4000 block of Church Street in Latonia on the afternoon of Oct. 31, they found Sand dead in the driveway with a gunshot wound to the face.
Hartman told responding officers that he shot Sand and pointed them to the pickup truck where they’d find the handgun he used, according to investigators.
While Hartman gave no explanation for why the shooting happened, witnesses told police the two men had been arguing throughout the day, said Galvin Adkisson, a detective with the Covington Police Department.
Hartman and Sand were living together in one of the two houses on the Church Street property, Adkisson said, adding investigators found a picture on Hartman’s phone from four days prior in which Hartman was pointing a gun at Sand’s head while he was sleeping.
Police recovered two shell casings – one inside the home and another outside. However, the detective said that three shots were fired in total that day, with two shots clearly being heard in a 911 call.
Prior to his death, Sand was inside the home with the gun and talking about harming himself when Hartman took the weapon from him, Adkisson said.
Adkisson added that shortly after, a shot was fired indoors, prompting Sand’s dog to attack a woman who was also inside the home. She suffered serious injuries and was taken to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center for treatment.
Hartman later went to his neighbor and asked her to call for help before returning to his home to shoot and kill Sand, Sanders said.
Hartman’s lawyer said that his client plans to argue he acted in self-defense.
There was no testimony during Tuesday’s hearing that Sand had attacked Hartman on the day of the shooting, though a witness did tell police that Sand assaulted Hartman in the past.
Sanders said that Kentucky’s “stand your ground” law doesn’t apply in this case because Hartman “successfully exited the scene of whatever was going on prior to the shooting.”
Sand was also unarmed and several feet away from Hartman when he was shot, Sanders said. “There’s nothing at this point to suggest self-defense.”
Hartman’s case was referred to a Kenton County grand jury, which will determine whether to indict him.
Jail records show Hartman is being held at the Kenton County Detention Center on a $500,000 bond.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Prosecutor: NKY man told neighbor to get help before fatal shooting
