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.

 

[ZipDisk]

I shit you not, that's what the New Mexico OSHA investigation found. Essentially, Gut bitch pointed her finger at the guy who provided the guns, and he was fully willing to roll on her.
And he did.

The evidence that caused the dismissal is that the judge was provided with some of the rounds, and had the reaction of "WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK"

One of the things you and several others have pointed out are the blanks that have a hole drilled, and a bb inserted into the round, so that it rattles. This is meant for shit like bandoleers where you need the round to look the part.

What I have said repeatedly over these pages is that Gut-reed did NOT check the rounds, she said she "mostly" checks them. Danger Hair was a danger to others, and it resulted in death.

I'm not saying Baldwin should be found financially harmless, while her father is a legend, she is a 24-year-old dumb fat fuck who looks like a lolcow.

 

[DrearyDoomguy]

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

And you seem hellbent on being a disingenuous prick. Saying Baldwin committed a tort rather than a crime is not the same thing as saying he deserves to get off scot-free. If the potential plaintiff waived that right so he could get an EP role in the film them blame his dumb ass.
NM fucked up trying to bring this case in criminal court and the example you provided is flimsy at best. Unless the law says you should face criminal charges for not assuming your safety experts are wrong you're off the mark here, plain and simple. Because you're essentially arguing that you should go to jail for being misled.

 

[MetokurGroomedMe]

i think there's a big misunderstanding here. i don't want Baldwin burned at the stake or executed Soviet style.i just think he should've had to provide monetary compensation, and maybe spent a few months in prison.

i personally genuinely believe he chose to negligently discharge a firearm in a way that killed a woman who had no reason to be killed, and based on all the evidence, part of the blame rests on the armorer. she was a dumb fucking retard who was under the influence of substances while handling firearms for a movie. she is very very culpable, especially because it was her job to have properly identifiable rounds.

but you know what the armorer didn't do? pull the trigger. alec baldwin did. he disregarded every common sense rule in the world, and he pointed a gun that he couldn't tell was loaded with blanks or lives even if he had checked at another person and killed them, in direct opposition of SAG rules.



so let's not pretend "hollywood tells actors to point guns everywhere" or "he didn't know any better he's just a widdle actor!" he wasn't supposed to do what he did in any universe, and just because the dumb bimbo whose job it was to prevent retards like baldwin from killing someone failed doesn't mean Baldwin shouldn't be held responsible for his own actual insane negligence.

 

[themanwhowalks]

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

You're incorrect. Not all blank ammo is crimp top blank ammo. And the rounds on set were live rounds that were drilled into to make inert, literally indistinguishable visually from live ammunition when loaded. And even crimp top blank ammunition is not possible to tell from live ammunition when loaded unless you literally stare down the barrel... which is retarded.

You literally have no idea what you're talking about when it comes to firearm safety or legal liability and every sentence you type makes you look more ignorant.

Edit: Your firearm takes are so fucking retarded you're forcing me to defend a adrenochrome mega-pedophile hollywood elite

 

[R00T]

You had an armorer, she had one job. Instead she acted like a child, got high, got drunk, and had live rounds laying around because she thought she was hot shit and it could never happen

Armorer actually had two jobs and an assistant because of it. The armorer and another woman were both propmasters and the other woman was an assistant armorer with no formal training. This was not the first ND on set with the other (2?) incidents not causing any harm but being the result of the assistant. The lead armorer even went so far as to accuse the assistant of loading live ammunition into the gun on purpose to tarnish her name. She was also potentially doing cocaine on set.

Hate Alec Baldwin for his opinions sure, but don’t get it twisted. The armorer was a psycho who should not have been within five feet of a gun.

I think at sentencing she said prison would affect her modeling career as well. Lingerie shoots. She was basically being an only fans model.

 

[Turbulence]

Anyone post Erlinda Johnson's interview? She was the second prosecutor and left the case the morning of because she thought the case should be voluntarily dismissed by the state.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/prosecutor-resigned-alec-baldwin-rust-case-says-wanted-dismissal-rcna161681

https://archive.ph/XPA9Z

She thinks this was a Morrissey/police mistake rather than anything malicious.

 

[Terfmaster9000]

I don't like Baldwin, but dr J you are being extremely retarded about this whole thing. Baldwin pulled the trigger, but the responsability for murder lies with the armorer whose ONLY job was to ensure this very shit doesn't happen. She should rot in prison for the rest of her life, with every penny she earns by weaving baskets or someshit going solely to the child of the woman who died due to her negligence.

 

[Not A Cat Person]

The whole reason you have an armorer is because an actor cannot be trusted to operate a gun in a safe way, nor anything more dangerous than string.

All these people going on about how Alec Baldwin should have been following gun safety rules of not ever ever pointing a gun at someone are really being unrealistic, in the context of filming a Hollywood movie. Are you really expecting that they should just smoke-and-mirrors everything? You have a person whose entire job it is to make sure that the props the actors are swinging around at each other are safe.

No, Alec Baldwin's crime wasn't pointing a prop gun at someone. It was hiring an unqualified, wet-behind-the-ears Californian girl with green hair to be the armorer. It was his responsibility to find someone suitable for the job, and he went with the diversity hire- presumably to avoid hiring an old white guy with unsuitable political opinions. For that, he should have been punished.

 

[MetokurGroomedMe]

I don't like Baldwin, but dr J you are being extremely retarded about this whole thing. Baldwin pulled the trigger, but the responsability for murder lies with the armorer whose ONLY job was to ensure this very shit doesn't happen. She should rot in prison for the rest of her life, with every penny she earns by weaving baskets or someshit going solely to the child of the woman who died due to her negligence.

so the armorer (who i agree deserves a ton of fault for this shit as well) is the one who raised his hand at the cinematographer and pulled the trigger, in direct defiance of Screen Actors Guild regulations and extremely common sense + mandated by SAG gun safety? no, she didn't. she deserves her part of the blame, and alec baldwin, the man who raised a firearm at another human being and pulled the trigger, thus taking her life forever, deserves his share of the blame, which is the act itself. you don't joke about gun safety. you don't play around with guns. you don't point a gun you were TOLD is unloaded at someone else and pull the trigger as a joke. he is the human being who made the choice to do that, and because of his choice to ignore all other warnings and do something incredibly retarded.

All these people going on about how Alec Baldwin should have been following gun safety rules of not ever ever pointing a gun at someone are really being unrealistic, in the context of filming a Hollywood movie. Are you really expecting that they should just smoke-and-mirrors everything? You have a person whose entire job it is to make sure that the props the actors are swinging around at each other are safe.

you should have read slightly further up the page where i posted rule #1 in the firearms and weapons category of the SAG handbook. it explicitly states that you should always treat every single gun you are given on set as if it is a real, loaded gun. it even instructs actors specifically IN THIS HANDBOOK never to point any gun you are given on set at another actor. you are fucking retarded if you think hollywood is instructing actors to do this.

 

[Get the rope Macaulay!]

because that would fuck up the camera angles.

who was standing behind the cameras during the moon landing? the entire concept of a person standing behind a camera should have vanished back in the 70s, when hollywood surely could have used the same tech that allowed people to control cameras so precisely from a million miles away that they were able to follow the lunar capsule slowly move off the moon. In fact like iron lungs or miscegenation even the word cameraman should be so antiquated that no one under social security age should know what the hell a cameraman even is.

it really makes you think....its almost like....

She fucked up. Alec should have checked the gun. The fact he didn't doesn't make him a murderer.

most everyone agrees with that, the problem is him listed as producer. this is where reddit goes all spergy about how "a producer could mean anything" but to use your example. if you supposedly are one of the people responsible for being a foreman on a house with bad electrical leading to someone's death and its already been stated you weren't bothering with following building code, its a lot easier to see that you're probably a murderer.

It's the kind of thing that makes you wonder if some districts dont keep a total jobber on the bench to assign the case to whenever they want it fucked up.

i personally believe the theory they're all like that and its only the rare times a defense lawyer defends someone with enough power to force them to play by the rules and because prosecutors aren't used to that they fuck up massively. a big reason silicon don got away with being gotti for so long was that there really are that many incompetents doing prosecuting in this country.

I think they did for many years because of the Twilight Zone/John Landis incident

then how did they make Air wolf or the a-team?

why they even brought in Morresy as special prosecutor

its a politican worthy case, the sort of thing that you run in the ads the rest of your life. its why they let a DEI person handle it.

 

[inception_state]

its a politican worthy case, the sort of thing that you run in the ads the rest of your life. its why they let a DEI person handle it.

Except this is prosecuting Alec Baldwin, major Democrat donor and gun control activist, in a blue district... The original prosecutor dropped out and they appointed Morrisey, a career defense attorney, as a special prosecutor because none of the politicians wanted to touch this case.

 

[East_Clintwood]

No, Alec Baldwin's crime wasn't pointing a prop gun at someone.

Actually it kinda was. I've posted it before, and I know others have as well, but New Mexico has a precedential decision called State vs Gilliam. The exact wording says:

It could have made no difference to the trial of a charge of involuntary manslaughter as to who loaded the gun … . All that it is necessary to establish for involuntary manslaughter by the use of a loaded firearm is that a defendant had in his hands a gun which at some time had been loaded and that he handled it … without due caution and circumspection and that death resulted.

Personally I'd call pointing any gun at a person, cocking the hammer and pulling the trigger to be textbook handling a firearm without due caution and circumspection, especially since none of those things were actually necessary at the time. If they were performing the actual scene, with the script calling for all those things I could maybe buy the argument, but outside of that, not so much.

Except this is prosecuting Alec Baldwin, major Democrat donor and gun control activist, in a blue district... The original prosecutor dropped out and they appointed Morrisey, a career defense attorney, as a special prosecutor because none of the politicians wanted to touch this case.

Morrisey was the second special prosecutor, the first was literally a member of the New Mexico House of Representatives.

 

[MadStan]

i think there's a big misunderstanding here. i don't want Baldwin burned at the stake or executed Soviet style.i just think he should've had to provide monetary compensation, and maybe spent a few months in prison.

i personally genuinely believe he chose to negligently discharge a firearm in a way that killed a woman who had no reason to be killed, and based on all the evidence, part of the blame rests on the armorer. she was a dumb fucking retard who was under the influence of substances while handling firearms for a movie. she is very very culpable, especially because it was her job to have properly identifiable rounds.

but you know what the armorer didn't do? pull the trigger. alec baldwin did. he disregarded every common sense rule in the world, and he pointed a gun that he couldn't tell was loaded with blanks or lives even if he had checked at another person and killed them, in direct opposition of SAG rules.

View attachment 6184830

so let's not pretend "hollywood tells actors to point guns everywhere" or "he didn't know any better he's just a widdle actor!" he wasn't supposed to do what he did in any universe, and just because the dumb bimbo whose job it was to prevent retards like baldwin from killing someone failed doesn't mean Baldwin shouldn't be held responsible for his own actual insane negligence.

Part?

Have you heard what other armorers have testified to in terms of the extensive safety checks that happen ever before that prop is handed to an actor? It isn't like she just missed one step, she missed a mountain of steps and was so negligent you'd have been better off having almost anyone else preparing loading and checking the weapons. A fucking trainee with a checklist would not have handed Alec the gun - that's how bad her omissions were.

No one can ever say Alec doesn't hold some accountability, but thousands of films every year are made with guns as props and I'd expect to find within the industry a zero percent chance that every actor checks their weapons all the time because the standards are so high for the armorers to do their jobs.

Whether Alec was handed a loaded gun or not, THE ONLY THING that is certain is that someone was going to certainty die eventually with her as an Armorer, whereas with Alec or whoever it was bad luck he had the worst worst fucking piece of shit masquerading as a safety expert when she was a total fucking loser.

Death with her was merely a matter of time and whoever was unlucky to be holding the prop.

Shit, if she handed it someone and they were walking with it and it went accidentally off, bounced off a wall and blew a hole in someones head, would you be asking for that unlucky cunt to be called a murderer for not having it checked it prior to their starting walking?

She was a walking poster for Death, it was going to happen to someone soon, and did.

 

[Ghost of Biden]

Hey guys, really. Let’s not forget this was New Mexico. The same New Mexico that allowed Jeffrey to fuck minors on a ranch all those years ago. I’m not really surprised to be honest.

 

[MetokurGroomedMe]

Part?

if i hand you a loaded gun and tell you it's unloaded, and you turn around and fucking shoot somebody and your only defense is "i thought it wasn't loaded, he told me so!" you are an absolutely retarded nigger. i don't know how much more plainly it can be put for you dude.

Have you heard what other armorers have testified to in terms of the extensive safety checks that happen ever before that prop is handed to an actor?

doesn't matter, SAG regulations state that all actors should treat all firearms at all times like they are loaded and never point them at anyone else, including themselves. this isn't up for debate, he ignored every single rule he was given even by people in his union. i fully agree that the dumb bitch in charge eventually would've gotten someone killed regardless, either through sheer negligence like in this case, handing a loaded gun to a retard who doesn't understand that he shouldn't point the gun at someone and fire or some other massive fuckup.

thousands of films every year are made with guns as props and I'd expect to find within the industry a zero percent chance that every actor checks their weapons all the time because the standards are so high for the armorers to do their jobs.

i am literally not even asking him to do that. i am asking him to exercise the least possible human restraint and NOT point a gun at someone and pull the trigger. those actions took more effort than not doing them.

Shit, if she handed it someone and they were walking with it and it went accidentally off, bounced off a wall and blew a hole in someones head, would you be asking for that unlucky cunt to be called a murderer

no, i wouldn't, because as i have said multiple times, my problem with this case is when alec baldwin pointed a gun at someone and pulled the trigger, not that alec baldwin fucked up. we all fuck up and make mistakes, but this was a mistake that literally didn't even have to be made, because even if the armorer hands him a live gun with explosive shotgun shells in it for some retard reason, if you don't play a joke on your cinematographer and point and shoot your 'prop' gun (there are no prop guns in major productions like this, they're real guns with blanks as has been discussed) then there won't be a tragedy. alec baldwin is responsible for aiming and firing a weapon into another human being. negligence led to him doing it. negligent homicide.

i personally see him as a murderer because he knew he shouldn't be pointing a gun at someone else. it was not intentional for her to be killed, so i will agree that he shouldn't have been and wasn't charged with murder. i just feel personally that because he should have known better, he is a murderer, ethically. and i hope that haunts him, because it might prevent him from making some retarded 'joke' like this again, and ripping away a camerawoman's life for literally no reason other than 'haha gun on movie set bang bang!'

 

[Iron Hamster]

She thinks this was a Morrissey/police mistake rather than anything malicious.

She's just being nice. Morrissey is an absolute piece of shit. She threatened Eric Hundley from America's Untold Stories because he was getting info about the shooting.

 

[TheClappening]

You have to wonder, if the scene Baldwin was rehearsing involved putting the gun to his head and pulling the trigger, would he have triple checked the gun before doing so.

 

[Atomic Ant]

If you are an adult in possession of a firearm and you point it at someone and pull the trigger, not in an act of self defense, and that person dies, you are guilty of negligent manslaughter at a bare minimum. It is your fault for being such a fucking retard that you dont even know the literal first rule of firearm safety.

Firearm safety Rule 1: Every gun is always loaded, especially when you think it isn't. Especially if you just think youre playing pretend on a movie set. It is ALWAYS to be treated as if its hot.

It's a shame that this actual, legal technicality that caused this mistrial is allowing people who transparently only support Alec Baldwin because they agree with his politics to have a half-baked victory lap as though he were acquitted, which he wasnt, because without monumental prosecutorial fuckup this guy would rightfully be in jail for murder.

It would be clever if it were intentional. These mouthbreathers that want to shift blame off the person whos hand was on the gun are frankly too stupid to be around weapons and are ironically the best argument against the 2nd amendment.

 

[MadStan]

You know, trust has got to mean something when working with others.

When you're on a site and you're on the roof and you call down to the guy and ask "have you hit the gas shut off?" and they say "yes", but according to everyone on here, you gotta get off the roof, go down and check it, or you are a retard.

Often in my profession I am handling equipment that will kill or take your hand or foot off very easily, and we trust the other staff when we call "Have you unplugged it?" before I put in an 8" router blade to a 5HP motor that would eat through a metal safe. You trust them.

I'd hate to have any of you niggers in my shop who sit there cocky and say "Well, you didn't actually check it yourself that I cut the gas shut off or unplugged the router before you accidentally engaged the bit, my bad, but hey, its really your fault".

You guys would be the worst shit heads to work with. True professionals go through the checklist and check, they don't lay blame to the. next person down the road. I know you types. You talk about responsibility and thoughtfulness and each persons culpability in it, but at the end of the day its all about blaming everyone and anyone other than the person who had the actual task to ensure everyone's safety.

You support the Armorer because she reflects the same negligent attitude you have, and call Alec a murderer, probably because you'd be that terrible on the set, too. If you are an armorer and can not at anytime hand a person a gun and have it pointed back at you and ask them to pull the trigger 100% of the time, every time, knowing there isn't a possibility of it going off, you ain't worth a bucket of shit.

And most of you on here calling for Alec to be nearly 100% responsible are the same type of shit heads. You, nor the Armorer ont he set of Rust are worth a bucket of shit because all you want to do is pass the blame, with no liability or understanding that if you did your job 100% right, the next guy doesn't have to worry about shit. And I've seen your type on construction site and in workshops, you guys don't last long - just like the Armorer, you got it coming, you get others hurt, or worse, dead.

True professionals know the rules of "never point a gun even if it is unloaded" is for the stupid people, the untrustworthy people. It's beaten into your head in every movie and scene and every cop will tell you that too, but by and large, Americans are stupid, and those rules are for you, for the very reasons you are exporting on this forum - you aren't trustworthy.

 

[Atomic Ant]

Often in my profession I am handling equipment that will kill or take your hand or foot off very easily, and we trust the other staff when we call "Have you unplugged it?" before I put in an 8" router blade to a 5HP motor that would eat through a metal safe. You trust them.

Would you like to know how I know that your profession has nothing to do with firearms?

https://google.gprivate.com/search.php?search?q=Firearm+Safety+Rule+%231

(Note: Some organizations list #1 as "Do not ever point the firearm at anything you arent prepared to destroy" , which Alec Baldwin also brazenly ignored. This is a more recent formulation of wisdom which predates your (probably disappointed and ashamed) grandfather. On these lists, my Rule #1 is their Rule #2.)

When you're on a site and you're on the roof and you call down to the guy and ask "have you hit the gas shut off?" and they say "yes", but according to everyone on here, you gotta get off the roof, go down and check it, or you are a retard.

When you're on a site working with guns, and you kill somebody out of complete ignorance or disregard for the literal first rule of firearm safety, then you get rightfully charged with at minimum, negligent manslaughter. Being an actor does not absolve you of this. When your friend compares this to a routine industrial accident, he is being a disingenuous partisan faggot.