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

archive.md/jNQZQ

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.

 

[Mike Stoklasa]

Watching Tim Pool chimp out about gun safety on this is amazing.

Tim Pool is monke.

 

[Sweet and Savoury]

I think it was the same way Brandon Lee died.

I don't think this was the case here

Brandon Lee died due to a set of really bad circumstances that really can't be blame on any one person.

The director called the day so the Master Armorer and Lead Prop went home but at the last minute the director decided to re-shoot a scene. Since both the Master Armorer and Lead Prop hand are gone the set master gets the assistant prop master to get the weapon, who by bad luck was on his 3rd day on the job.

Now before the Master Armorer went home he noticed that one of the .44 slugs had come loose from one of the dummy rounds and got stuck in the barrel of the gun. But since he had been on set for like 16 hours he decided to clear it in the morning as for what he knew shooting was done for the day. So he simply logged it as "clean gun" to remind himself and went home to sleep.

With everyone being tired and cranky the unit director was rushing everyone to get this last shot set up and told the assistant prop master to "hurry the fuck up and get the gun, everyone's waiting on your ass." So being very new he did as he was told and rushed off to grab the weapon for the actor.

The new to the job prop guy did check the weapon's log but thought it just meant the gun was dirty and needed to be cleaned and not that a .44 cal slug was sitting in the barrel. So he did what he was taught and got the blanks out, got them signed off by a third party and handed the gun to the actor.

The actor fired the weapon at Brandon Lee at a distance of less then 6ft and even though the blank was a small powder load due to the range it still had enough power to send that massive .44 slug right though Lee's chest causing massive internal injuries that a few hours later he died from.

So really...who do you blame in a situation like this? Sometimes life just shits on you and you die.

 

[Spunt]

Link

Prop Gun Fired by Alec Baldwin Contained Live Bullet, Says IATSE Local 44 — UPDATE​

" IATSE Local 44, which covers prop masters, sent an email to its members early Friday morning that said the gun used in the scene contained “a live round” and the production’s propmaster was not a member of Local 44. Director Joel Souza also was hit and injured by a bullet and was treated at an area hospital before being released."

Prop Gun Fired by Alec Baldwin Contained a ‘Live Single Round,’ Says IATSE Local 44

The incident took place October 21 at the Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe County. It is under investigation.

www.yahoo.com

If any of this is remotely true then everyone involved will deservedly be sued into another dimension even if there are no criminal charges. Handing a "hot gun" to an actor without them knowing, in a situation where presumably he has to point it down the lens (the only circumstance I can think of where both the DP and the Director would be hit by the same bullet) requires a level of negligence and incompetence even greater than the fuckup that killed Brandon Lee - that was at least someone failing to spot a problem with a prop, but this sounds like the gun was working as intended. Everyone from the props guy to the studio itself is going to be buried in lawsuits and never make a movie again, and quite right too. If someone really mistook a real gun capable of firing live rounds for a prop gun that can't, that's a criminal level of negligence that almost defies belief. But we all of us have worked places where people are that bad at their jobs, it happens. As an actor you can't second-guess the safety professionals on set - that's going to put you in more danger than blindly trusting them, and open you up to all sorts of liabilities. Baldwin had the right to assume the gun he was holding was the right one, because there's a well-paid guy on set whose exact job it is to make sure that is the case.

I don't like Alec Baldwin. But he's probably the least responsible person here. For some of you guys to assume he was drunk or shooting a loaded gun wildly around a set for some reason (he has decades of experience on sets where there are guns, real and fake) makes you look really fucking pathetic. Like some sped posting an obviously faked and unsourced text image saying he was going all Yosemite Sam on set and you morons falling for it. Jesus fuck, if ANY actor was that irresponsible they wouldn't have the career Baldwin has had, especially considering he's a massive asshole as has been well documented.

Alec Baldwin is suffering right now, and if that's the caveman level of schadenfreude that gets you off, don't go complaining the next time some leftoid celebrates something horrible happening to someone you respect because they don't like their opinions. Alec Baldwin deserves punishment for the bad things he's done over the years, his hypocrisy, his elitist arrogance, his appalling political views, but not for this. This sounds (unless these sources are completely wrong, which I acknowledge is possible) like he actually is one of the victims here.

EDIT: I missed that he was a producer when I wrote this. That means he has some degree of liability, both ethical and legal, but exactly how much depends on what his contractual responsibilities were - usually a producer credit is a sop to get a bigger-name actor to appear in a smaller production. We'll no doubt find out at some point given the criminal and civil investigations. But the point remains that he is liable as a producer of the film, not as the guy who pulled the trigger.

 

[Pocket Dragoon]

If any of this is remotely true then everyone involved will deservedly be sued into another dimension even if there are no criminal charges. Handing a "hot gun" to an actor without them knowing, in a situation where presumably he has to point it down the lens (the only circumstance I can think of where both the DP and the Director would be hit by the same bullet) requires a level of negligence and incompetence even greater than the fuckup that killed Brandon Lee.

Very much so, the negligence is astounding; even more so that someone would hand him *any* firearm, given his mental history, which his ilk have been harping on so much lately.

Alec Baldwin is suffering right now, and if that's the caveman level of schadenfreude that gets you off, don't go complaining the next time some leftoid celebrates something horrible happening to someone you respect because they don't like their opinions. Alec Baldwin deserves punishment for the bad things he's done over the years, his hypocrisy, his elitist arrogance, his appalling political views, but not for this. This sounds (unless these sources are completely wrong, which I acknowledge is possible) like he actually is one of the victims here.

So much optimism, so few stickers.

 

[Catch The Rainbow]

 

[Not Really Here]

It's literally a props issue. The gun wasn't supposed to be loaded with live rounds.

This is a "Hollywood is too dumb to obey the first rule of guns" issue.

Adam here seems to be alluding to the fact that it wasn't part of the scene.

Even Adam here seems too dumb to understand the issue.

You don't point a gun at a person you don't want dead.

 

[Pocket Dragoon]

You don't point a gun at a person you don't want dead.

Insert bad method-acting joke here.

 

[byuu]

You don't point a gun at a person you don't want dead.

Nigger, how do you make a Western with no one pointing a gun at someone?
It's a movie, they have different rules for this kind of shit.

 

[Getting tard comed]

But he's probably the least responsible person here.

Star of a movie.. producer of the movie.. one of the people most likely responsible for getting the funding of the movie..

Somehow isn't responsible for hiring or OKing the hiring of a non union prop master for a movie with guns.

Ok Bruh..

And that's assuming a notorious drunkard who has known anger issues wasn't effected by any of that when this happened.

I won't care when somebody I respect gets ridiculed and celebrated when they die because it's what they already do and will continue to do and would continue to do whether I celebrate Baldwin having his career ruined and possibly going to jail or not.

What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

FUCK

YOUR

OPTICS AND MORAL FAGGING.

 

[Not Really Here]

Nigger, how do you make a Western with no one pointing a gun at someone?
It's a movie, they have different rules for this kind of shit.

You use a prop with a plug of steel welded into the barrel, or a fake barrel that's entirely solid except for the last 2 inches.
Why did I have to explain that?

 

[byuu]

You use a prop with a plug of steel welded into the barrel, or a fake barrel that's entirely solid except for the last 2 inches.

Then you'd have to add CGI shooting effects in post, which always look like fake garbage.

 

[Smug Cat]

Y'all niggas got problems. Alec Baldwin is an idiot with bad political takes, but that is completely irrelevant to the actual facts of what happened here. Some of you are so transparently twisting the facts available or straight up making shit up because you want it to be his fault. Really wanting something to be true doesn't make it real. Like another poster upthread said, that is genuinely pathetic. It's not "moralfagging" or "Baldwin stanning" to point out that your obvious fanfiction doesn't make any sense. You're just an idiot.

Just saw it on 4chan. So if it’s fake, it’s fake but accurate. Alec Baldwin is exactly the kind of guy to kill someone via ND.

So it's completely made up and you spread completely fake shit but you're arguing it's "accurate" despite being fake because it feels to you like it should be true. Ok retard.

 

[Not Really Here]

Then you'd have to add CGI shooting effects in post, which always look like fake garbage.

Nigger, stop doing drugs they have fucked up your brain.
You don't have to point it exactly at another person, and you can just shoot the person firing the gun.

But congratulations, you're dumb enough to work in Hollywood.

 

[waffle]

Bummer for the people that died, but if anyone should have to live with something like that on their conscience, Baldwin is a huge piece of shit...

 

[Willie Thrills]

Jesus Christ, may the poor woman rest in peace.

I also feel bad for Baldwin too. The trauma of accidentally killing someone at point blank range must be fucking unbearable. Wouldn't be surprised if the film gets cancelled or he retires after this. I remember TMZ and the paparazzi almost pushing him to suicide a decade ago over a previous controversy in the 2000s.

Christ, how sociopathic. These bastards have had their minds so twisted by current year politics that they immediately jumped to use Hutchins' corpse to get in an epic pwn on Alec Baldwin because he did a mean impression of their Lord and Saviour, Donald Trump.

Fuck all of these shameless hack frauds.

So... one of the most disgusting industries on the planet has it's lead actor and producer shoot another employee - not an actress, from the looks of things, dead, and your first thought is "People are being mean"?

If he is not, at that time, filming an exact scene and firing the gun at that exact moment, a loaded pistol should be nowhere near to him.

He is an actor who appears to have brandished a firearm at a member of staff, and shot and killed her and injured another staff member.

It is either that they were outright negligent beyond comprehension, or that it was criminal activity.

 

[Calandrino]

Would his 30 Rock character do this?

Yes, he shot and killed guest star Michael Keaton by accident. Shame I can't find a clip, it's prime meme material.

Michael Keaton

Michael Keaton (1951 -) Mr. Mom (1982) [Jack]: Bleeds out on the floor after being shot by Teri Garr after she finds him having an affair with Ann Jillian. This turns out to be a dream Keaton's character is having, fueled by an addiction to soap operas and depression from having to stay at home...

cinemorgue.fandom.com

• 30 Rock: 100th Episode (2011) [Tom]: Accidentally shot in the stomach by Alec Baldwin as Alec, Tina Fey, Jack McBrayer and Tracy Morgan run to the TGS stage (Played for comic effect).

 

[byuu]

Nigger, stop doing drugs they have fucked up your brain.
You don't have to point it exactly at another person, and you can just shoot the person firing the gun.

Hey, why even bother with anyone firing a gun? Just make a quick cut to stock footage of a gun being fired.
The audience will love it!

 

[kcbbq]

Y'all niggas got problems. Alec Baldwin is an idiot with bad political takes, but that is completely irrelevant to the actual facts of what happened here. Some of you are so transparently twisting the facts available or straight up making shit up because you want it to be his fault. Really wanting something to be true doesn't make it real. Like another poster upthread said, that is genuinely pathetic. It's not "moralfagging" or "Baldwin stanning" to point out that your obvious fanfiction doesn't make any sense. You're just an idiot.

So it's completely made up and you spread completely fake shit but you're arguing it's "accurate" despite being fake because it feels to you like it should be true. Ok exceptional individual.

Baldwin has repeatedly, and gleefully, done unto others what is being done to him. Save your outrage.

 

[Pocket Dragoon]

Then you'd have to add CGI shooting effects in post, which always look like fake garbage.

Not anymore; the best stage guns now use compressed air to cycle the bolt & emit a small puff from the muzzle, which is easily turned into a cinematic flash, and they cost about as much as a high-end airsoft or paintball gun. Real firearms don't make much of a blast anyways, and even low-budget productions can easily & cheaply outsource simple CGI like that.

Hell, in the past ten years I've seen a lot of small studio & student short films that have very convincing gunfire effects, easily on par with movies like Blackhawk Down.

 

[SneedEyeMitch]

No health and safety on sets?