Despite shooting, Suffolk re-enactor will attend March event

By RALPH BLUMENTHAL

The mysterious shooting of a would-be Yankee cavalryman from the Bronx during the filming of a Civil War re-enactment in Virginia in September has been solved, according to the authorities, with the indictment of a latter-day Johnny Reb who, they say, accidentally fired a .44-caliber ball from an 1860 Army Colt pistol that was supposed to be empty.

The shot wounded Thomas Lord, a 73-year-old former New York City police officer from Suffolk, Va., and a bluecoat with the Seventh New York Volunteer Cavalry. The group’s roots include a pitched battle against Confederates in the trenches near Suffolk in 1864.

 Still, Mr. Lord said he was looking forward to his unit’s next re-enactment, in March at Endview Plantation in Newport News, Va., marking the Battle of Williamsburg. “I’ll be there,” he said.

Mr. Lord said of the shot, “It missed the main artery by centimeters, in which case I could have bled out.” He faulted the Isle of Wight County’s sheriff’s office for what he called blunders in the investigation.

The suspect, Josh O. Silva, 29, of Norfolk, Va., was armed and in costume as an unofficial walk-on in the re-enactment. He was identified with the help of movie footage that captured the gunfire and narrowed the possible suspects but did not pinpoint the gunman, said C. W. Phelps, the county sheriff.

Mr. Silva was indicted on Monday on the charge of “reckless handling of a firearm,” said Wayne Farmer, the county attorney. The charge is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine.

“No one is alleging ill will or that anyone acted intentionally,” said Mr. Farmer, speaking from his home on Friday because Virginia offices were closed for Lee-Jackson Day, marking the birthdays this month of the Confederate heroes Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson and now celebrated on the Friday before Martin Luther King’s Birthday.

“If I had any idea that Mr. Silva had fired intentionally at another person, it would be a much more serious charge,” Mr. Farmer said.

Asked why Mr. Silva had not turned himself in after the shooting, Sheriff Phelps said: “He wasn’t sure he did it. He didn’t know he’d shot anyone.” He attributed delays in the investigation to recent turnovers in the county attorney’s office.

Mr. Farmer said that Mr. Silva was not a member of an organized re-enactment group but showed up in Confederate grays and joined the event, evidently unaware of rules strictly forbidding loaded weapons. He said Mr. Silva did not appear to have a criminal record and was expected to surrender on Tuesday.

Mr. Silva would not open the door to his home in Norfolk’s Willoughby Spit neighborhood on Friday, and said only, “We don’t want any.”

The shooting occurred shortly after noon on Sept. 27, 2008, as a movie crew from a company called Alderworks was filming the re-enactment of a trench battle in Heritage Park in Suffolk for a documentary.

Mr. Silva drew attention by brandishing a large unsheathed Bowie knife, Mr. Lord said. Union cavalry troops had just taken the earthworks from a group of rebel fighters when, Mr. Lord recalled, “I was hit in the right shoulder with a sharp blow — it felt like someone had hit me with a baseball bat.”

The lead ball, a reproduction fired from an authentic period pistol, punctured his scapula and ended up sticking out from the front of his shoulder. The angle of the shot, Mr. Lord said, suggested it came from someone below in the enemy ditch.

He said the area was not immediately secured as a crime scene, allowing suspects and witnesses to leave. Investigators spent weeks searching for a hunter who was presumed to have fired the shot, Mr. Lord said. He added that the authorities obtained the projectile only because he preserved it in a vial and turned it over.

Lisa A. Bacon contributed reporting from Virginia.