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.

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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.

 

[Pocket Dragoon]

Halyna Hutchins

 

[LordofTendons]

Jon-Erik Hexum was fucking around with blanks on set and put a blank revolver to his head and fired it. The muzzle blast was still enough to basically spall fragments of his skull into his brain, which killed him. This sounds more like how Brandon Lee died though, when a blank round shot a dummy bullet the movie armorers had forgotten about into him.

Hexum put the gun to his temple where the bone is thinnest. I remember the papers making a thing about that at the time as though if he had put it to some other area of his skull he might have had a chance of survival.

 

[Welcome to the Show]

I hope they use the scene in the movie.

 

[mr.moon1488]

Edit: Apparently they were tards and actually somehow had live ammo. While the shit I posted below is possible, it doesn't seem to be what happened in this case.




In case anyone is wondering how this might have happened, if you have anything in the barrel of a weapon and you fire a blank round, that thing will become a really shitty "bullet" itself. No it won't function like an actual round, but it absolutely can be lethal.

If I had to make a guess as to what happened, they were using a semi-auto and had some sort of plug in the barrel which you would need to allow the weapon to cycle properly and that plug came loose and acted as a bullet.

 

[Dysnomia]

It's The Crow all over again. How horrible.

 

[Larry David's Opera Cape]

Halyna Hutchins
View attachment 2647260View attachment 2647259

Hollywood is a degenerate shitshow but she actually sort of looks like a nice lady. Figures. Very sad.

Anything that hits you hard enough to break open a major vessel/artery can kill you before medical help arrives, doesn't have to be a real bullet. I can't believe they haven't figured out a smarter way to do gun sfx since Brandon Lee died but here we are.

 

[BobbyBriggs69420]

if you use guns for anything you need to know safe handling yourself not just the person who handed it to you, and especially if there is pointing and firing blanks at people safe handling would include checking the barrel and whatever blank firing adapter, you checking it not just whoever handed it to you.

If this isn't written into law it is surely one of those "a group of common men would say this is true" type things (whatever the word is for that) and it would probably get any normal idiot sent to prison if they relied on someone else saying "oh ya, barrel's clear, blast away at whomever!"

 

[Getting tard comed]

Very sad! Hope the director makes it.

That Trump curse is motherfucker.

 

[Mr. Zed da Robot Poon Fed]

Eh, how does on die from blanks?

Look at this guy for an example.

 

[Dr. Hannibal Buress]

Negligence is required for involuntary manslaughter. I'm sure they're looking at that angle.

My guess is they'll try to charge the armorer in charge of all the firearms and safety on set with criminal negligence, the buck stops with them in terms of making sure shit exactly like this does not happen.

 

[XYZpdq]

You’d think Hollywood would have learned how to properly handle firearms after The Crow.

I was under the impression they mostly used airsoft since the mid 90s either as inert props or actually airsofting at each other so people sold the hit right and then removing the bbs in post.

 

[AirdropShitposts]

 

[Racist Trash]

I am surprised they still use real guns and don't use a gun substitute that still has the flash at the end but without the risk of it doing anything. I assume that any sound we hear is already added in post so it's not like they are capturing that part of it.

 

[Drain Todger]

Blanks are essentially bullet cartridges without the bullet. If there's anything in the barrel, it will act like a bullet and be propelled by the gas expelled by the blank. It's the same way Brandon Lee died.

Exactly. Could have been a wad in there, or some other barrel obstruction, that was propelled with sufficient force to kill. This should never happen with modern prop guns.

 

[totallyrandomusername]

Hexum put the gun to his temple where the bone is thinnest. I remember the papers making a thing about that at the time as though if he had put it to some other area of his skull he might have had a chance of survival.

Yep. He put it right near his temple, which is the thinnest part of the skull, and very near the middle meningeal artery, which if injured, can cause the severe and rapid formation of an epidural hematoma (arterial bleed inside the skull that compresses the brain and leads to herniation/death). It's possible to damage this vessel with just a physical blow near the temple. If he had put it most other places on his skull and did this, there is a very strong possibility he would have been injured, but would have survived.

 

[Sig]

The first shot was an accident the second one not so much

 

[FatalTater]

I did not have Alec Baldwin killing people on my 2021 Bingo card, but here we are.

 

[theshitposter]

notching up the method acting

 

[Snekposter]

Fun .ental exercise. Imagine how much different this article would have been written if the shooter was Adam Baldwin?

Well, its highly unlikely such an event would happen given he has an IQ above room temperature, unlike most actors. I mean, if he can play a guy like (insert Adam Baldwin character) and not accidentally hurt himself or others via tomfoolery on-set, he's probably more firearms-safe than most of us here.

 

[RodgerDodger]

My guess is they'll try to charge the armorer in charge of all the firearms and safety on set with criminal negligence, the buck stops with them in terms of making sure shit exactly like this does not happen.

That’s probably where any charges or trouble will come., They are shooting in New Mexico. Are they using some known, professional and most importantly Hollywood Union Armorer? Or are they using somebodies cousin, who is local, to save a few bucks?

For some reason I am thinking of the horrible deaths of a film production crew outside Savanah Georgia, when they cut corners and filmed a scene on what they thought was an unused railroad bridge, without taking proper precautions, permissions or permits.