Alec Baldwin's 'prop firearm' kills one, injures another

Sheriff's office: Alec Baldwin discharged prop gun that killed crew member, wounded director

Baldwin is one of the film's star actors and producers. He went to the sheriff's office willingly and provided a statement to investigators, sheriff's office spokesman Juan Ríos said.

www.santafenewmexican.com

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Actor Alec Baldwin discharged a "prop firearm" that killed a cinematographer and injured a the director of the movie Rust, being filmed on a set south of Santa Fe, a county sheriff's office spokesman said late Thursday.

Halyna Hutchins, 42 and the director of photography for the movie, died at University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque. The film's director, Joel Souza, was hospitalized in Santa Fe, Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office spokesman Juan Ríos said.

A source closed to the investigation said Baldwin, 63, was questioned by investigators late Thursday and was seen by a New Mexican reporter and photographer in tears.

Investigators are still trying to determine if the incident was an accident, Ríos said. No charges have been filed, and the investigation remains open, Ríos wrote in a news release.

The prop was fired at Bonanza Creek Ranch, where filming was underway, the sheriff's office said in an early evening news release. Baldwin stars in the production.

Hutchins died from her injuries after she was flown to University of New Mexico Hospital, according to the sheriff's office. Souza was taken to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, where he is receiving emergency care, the sheriff's office said. Attempts to get comment from Baldwin were unsuccessful.

“We received the devastating news this evening, that one of our members, Halyna Hutchins, the Director of Photography on a production called ‘Rust’ in New Mexico died from injuries sustained on the set,” John Lindley, the president of the International Cinematographers Guild Local 600, and Rebecca Rhine, the executive director, said in a statement, as reported by Variety. “The details are unclear at this moment, but we are working to learn more, and we support a full investigation into this tragic event. This is a terrible loss, and we mourn the passing of a member of our Guild’s family.”

Deputies were investigating how the accident occurred and "what type of projectile was discharged," the sheriff's office said in an earlier news release.

Rust Movie Productions did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Filming for Rust was set to continue into early November, according to a news release from the New Mexico Film Office. It's described as the story of a 13-year-old boy left to fend for himself and his younger brother following the death of their parents in 1880s Kansas, with New Mexico doubling for Kansas.

Guns firing blanks have been blamed for deaths in past movie productions. Online Hollywood news site Deadline reported, "Actor Jon-Erik Hexum was killed Oct. 18, 1984, on the set of the TV series Cover Up when he accidentally shot himself in the head with a gun loaded with blanks. And in 1993, Brandon Lee, the son of martial arts legend Bruce Lee, died after he was shot in the head by a gun firing blanks on the set of The Crow. Both incidents were determined to have been accidents."

This is a developing story and will be updated.

 

[Throng of Titans]

Baldwin deserves some blame, but I don't think murder is right.

Maybe some sort of manslaughter, but even then, he wasn't doing anything that Hollywood doesn't tell people to do as an actor. The fuckup was that he hired a shit armorer and didn't supervise her at all. He should be tried for that and his role as a producer, arguing about whether he did or did not pull the trigger is ultimately irrelevant, because a properly supervised armorer doing their job would mean that said situation wouldn't have been dangerous in the first place.

 

[ZipDisk]

Baldwin was charged with involuntary manslaughter.

 

[Dr J]

He should be tried for that and his role as a producer, arguing about whether he did or did not pull the trigger is ultimately irrelevant, because a properly supervised armorer doing their job would mean that said situation wouldn't have been dangerous in the first place.

If Baldwin had actually bothered to check the gun before pointing it at that woman and firing it, it wouldn't have mattered that the armourer was in over her head and utterly incompetent.

This is what people aren't getting, the buck stops with Baldwin. He didn't check the gun. He pointed it at the woman. He pulled the trigger. No one else did.

 

[ZipDisk]

The trial did not get to that point. You're welcome to your feelings, but he was not found culpable.

Now in civil court? He's gonna get fucked.

 

[Dr J]

The trial did not get to that point. You're welcome to your feelings, but he was not found culpable.

Who gives a shit what the corrupt legal system did or didn't find? They didn't find OJ guilty, either

Now in civil court? He's gonna get fucked.

Well, his career's over anyway. Good luck getting insurance for this nutjob

 

[ZipDisk]

His career was already over. He wanted to be a chat host and lost multiple shows due to his own behavior. Rust was a vanity project.

 

[Throng of Titans]

If Baldwin had actually bothered to check the gun before pointing it at that woman and firing it, it wouldn't have mattered that the armourer was in over her head and utterly incompetent.

This is what people aren't getting, the buck stops with Baldwin. He didn't check the gun. He pointed it at the woman. He pulled the trigger. No one else did.

Except Hollywood literally trains actors to not do a damn thing to check the gun or worry about where you point it.

Is that retarded? Sure, but it's standard operating procedure, and why having a good armorer is so damn important.

Should Baldwin have done all that? Sure, but it's literally the opposite of what he's spent his entire professional career trained to do.

 

[Historical Strelkov]

Except Hollywood literally trains actors to not do a damn thing to check the gun or worry about where you point it.

Where did you hear that? Is this some new gaslighting misinformation I haven't heard about?

This is the English version of Screen Actors Guild, which has essentially the same rules, because you know...the rules are pretty universal.
There's some propaganda going around, some real fuckery about this case.

 

[MadStan]

If Baldwin had actually bothered to check the gun before pointing it at that woman and firing it, it wouldn't have mattered that the armourer was in over her head and utterly incompetent.

This is what people aren't getting, the buck stops with Baldwin. He didn't check the gun. He pointed it at the woman. He pulled the trigger. No one else did.

We do get it. But we aren't in agreement in your linear thought process on this. Everyone along the line bears responsibility, but you wish to unload the bulk of it to Alec, whereas the law and duties in the linear process show that he was the least to bear responsibility, whereas you believe he should bear the greatest responsibility.

Another example is you take your car to the garage because the breaks are failing, and your daughter wants to go use it, they fix them and then you let your daughter go pick up the car and use it. The breaks fail and she dies. Who are we to blame? You as the father who lent someone else your car you didn't ensure was road worthy? Or do we go after the mechanic you trusted?

 

[Radiaux]

I thought this shit was over and done with? Didn't they rule it was the armorers fault? The gun was supposed to have been loaded properly for the stunt and it wasn't. Someone took it out of the studio and live fired with it and forgot the swap the rounds. Then the armorer just did not check the gun. I thought that was the conclusion?

 

[Radiaux]

We do get it. But we aren't in agreement in your linear thought process on this. Everyone along the line bears responsibility, but you wish to unload the bulk of it to Alec, whereas the law and duties in the linear process show that he was the least to bear responsibility, whereas you believe he should bear the greatest responsibility.

Another example is you take your car to the garage because the breaks are failing, and your daughter wants to go use it, they fix them and then you let your daughter go pick up the car and use it. The breaks fail and she dies. Who are we to blame? You as the father who lent someone else your car you didn't ensure was road worthy? Or do we go after the mechanic you trusted?

You go after the mechanic because they said that shit was fixed.

 

[MadStan]

You go after the mechanic because they said that shit was fixed.

Exactly, but it was the father who lent his equipment to his daughter claiming it was safe to use, but never checked it. I made the example to show that the person first in line bears greater responsibility, but to go after the father who did not check his own equipment out would be a stretch - this is how I see going after Alec, there were two not just one people earlier in the line that were supposed to make sure the equipment was safe. We call it a gun, but it's just a piece of equipment at the end of the day.

 

[CowPox]

Did the guy who shot Brandon Lee get charged for it?

 

[themanwhowalks]

Baldwin was the producer, he was at least partly responsible for hiring her in the first place, so the liability still ultimately rests with him

No... If someone you hire fails to do their job its their fault. Maybe he has some vague moral responsibility to hire competent people, but liability? No. The armorer was recommended by her father, who had been working in the industry for decades and had a very good reputation, so is it his fault? also no. She was the one who mixed live ammunition and blank ammunition in the same box, she was the one who failed to enforce safety standards on set, she failed to even to the basic responsibilities associated with being a professional armorer.

Shooting someone is not something that you ever really recover from, even if you had full intentions of pulling the trigger. Alec Baldwin is a goofy grown up theatre kid, I just feel bad for him. This case is more tragic then funny. A woman died because of a retarded zoomer's irresponsibility.

 

[Dr J]

but you wish to unload the bulk of it to Alec

Because HE FUCKING PULLED THE TRIGGER

Baldwin defenders in this thread seem to live in this fantasy world where it's inconceivable that Alec Baldwin, Hollywood royalty, could have possibly checked the cylinder of the gun like a common pleb before he pointed it, fired it and killed a woman with it

whereas the law and duties in the linear process show that he was the least to bear responsibility

'Law and duties' (whatever the fuck that means) in this case have clearly been deliberately set up to avoid holding him accountable because he's a rich celebrity. Go to New Mexico and shoot somebody and say 'Oh I didn't know the gun was loaded'. See how quickly they throw your ass in prison

Another example is you take your car to the garage because the breaks are failing, and your daughter wants to go use it, they fix them and then you let your daughter go pick up the car and use it. The breaks fail and she dies. Who are we to blame? You as the father who lent someone else your car you didn't ensure was road worthy? Or do we go after the mechanic you trusted?

Your analogy is shit, and even if your shitty mechanic is supposed to have fixed your brakes and didn't, and even if it's somebody else's car, it's the responsibility of whoever's driving the car to make sure they have functioning fucking brakes before they set out anywhere and potentially hit somebody. Just like it was Baldwin's responsibility, as the guy fucking wielding the gun, to make sure he wasn't firing live rounds before he pulled the trigger.

No... If someone you hire fails to do their job its their fault. Maybe he has some vague moral responsibility to hire competent people, but liability? No.

He's the producer, it's his show, he's legally liable for hiring shit people. There's precedent for this: when John Landis' incompetence on the set of Twilight Zone got Vic Morrow and two Vietnamese children killed, the families sued not just him but Steven Spielberg and the studio as well, Spielberg was the producer and therefore responsible for Landis and the stunt people

I just feel bad for him

Don't. The woman died because holier-than-thou Alec Baldwin was too arrogant to follow basic safety protocols. Feel sorry for the woman, and her child who now has to grow up without a mother because Alec Baldwin's an asshole

 

[themanwhowalks]

He's the producer, it's his show, he's legally liable for hiring shit people. There's precedent for this: when John Landis' incompetence on the set of Twilight Zone got Vic Morrow and two Vietnamese children killed, the families sued not just him but Steven Spielberg and the studio as well, Spielberg was the producer and therefore responsible for Landis and the stunt people

Please pick up a dictionary. I didn't realize I was talking to a retard, my mistake. Have a good day buddy

 

[Harambe]

But to hire lawyers capable of bringing a motion for dismissal together that actually held weight is a multimillion dollar activity involving 24/7 control, endless follow up of leads and orchestration on the highest level.

This is obviously not true, the part about endless orchestrating and follow up it's just plainly not so.

The lawyers are expensive and hard working they are not the CIA-boogeyman you think they are. Alec Baldwin was some schmuck who is at best civilly liable.

the people calling him a murderer should think about what murderer actually means and if you can really say that describes this retarded actor.

There's so little malice attributable to Baldwin here it's surprising he was charged. The prosecutor sounds like a rabid and ambitious criminal on their own.

Come on he is some retard who got told by the gun person the gun had blanks. "He should have checked" he'd have seen rounds visibly identical to the blanks in the gun. "He shouldn't have pointed the gun" he was literally pretending to be a cowboy for money "I hate actors" for fucking what being smug and rich they're not the real problem in anyones life really outside of the film industry

 

[Dr J]

"He should have checked" he'd have seen rounds visibly identical to the blanks in the gun.

Tell me you honestly couldn't tell the difference between this:

And one of these:

Or even, one of these:

There's so little malice attributable to Baldwin here it's surprising he was charged

There's so little malice attributable to a guy who drinks a fifth of vodka, gets behind the wheel, confuses the brake with the accelerator and hits somebody, but we charge them

 

[ZipDisk]

Dr J, that is EXACTLY what the problem was. Guttierez-Reed had blanks that were visibly indistinguishable from the actual rounds, because she had the shit rattling around in the back of her car and she "usually" checked it.

Madstan, I disagreed on your comment because the actual armorer, the nepo baby's father, had NOTHING to do with Rust.

She stole the rounds from a Cage movie. That's not a joke. She literally took the rounds from the set of a Nicolas Cage Western and took it over to rust, in a bag in her car.

She randomly loaded the bag rounds into a box of ammunition. It was Russian roulette with the serial numbers filed off.

 

[Dr J]

Dr J, that is EXACTLY what the problem was. Guttierez-Reed had blanks that were visibly indistinguishable from the actual rounds, because she had the shit rattling around in the back of her car and she "usually" checked it.

No blank could be visually indistinguishable from a live round because a blank, by definition, does not have a bullet in it.