Condolences have been flooding in after the loss of Peter Barclay, a medieval knight reenactor who fatally impaled himself during a stunt gone wrong at a Kentucky Renaissance fair on Saturday.
Barclay, 53, was performing on horseback when he attempted to spear a paper plate with a lance, and its metal tip “hit the ground and flipped,” his brother John wrote on Facebook. It then pierced Barclay in the sternum. He died en route to the hospital.
“Everybody that knew him is just dead stunned,” said John Fulton, president of the Society of Creative Anachronism (SCA), where Barclay was an equestrian marshal who performed under the name Master Terafan Greydragon, according to the Associated Press. “I’ve never had an injury on the field like this, ever, that led to something like this.”
Fulton then complimented Barclay’s “ability, skill, and attention to detail,” which came from more than 30 years of practice with the organization.
In a Facebook eulogy, Barclay’s brother wrote, “He died doing what he loved, but will still be missed.”
In the meantime, the SVA is launching an investigation into Barclay’s accidental death so they can prevent tragedies like this in the future.
Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:
- This man got ‘hooked’ on Hot Wheels when he was 7. Now, 50 years later, he’s got 3,500 cars in his collection
- Customers banned from gun range for life over selfie showing one man pointing his firearm at his friend’s head
- ‘This can’t be what I think it is’: 4-year-old gives mother crack cocaine that she got at daycare
Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.