Alec Baldwin fires prop gun on movie set, killing cinematographer

[announced]

https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/al...ay-2021-10-22/

Oct 22 (Reuters) - Hollywood actor Alec Baldwin fatally shot a cinematographer and wounded a director when he discharged a prop gun on a movie set in New Mexico on Thursday, authorities said.

Baldwin shot Halyna Hutchins, the photography director of "Rust", and Joel Souza, the film's director, at the Bonanza Creek Ranch, a production location south of Santa Fe, according to the Santa Fe Sheriff's Department.

Hutchins was transported by helicopter to the University of New Mexico Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Souza was taken by ambulance to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical center to undergo treatment for his injuries. The severity of his injuries could not immediately be determined.

Actress Frances Fisher said on Twitter that "Souza texted me that he's out of hospital." Asked whether Souza had been discharged, medical center spokesperson Arturo Delgado said he was not allowed to release information about patients.

The Sheriff's office said that no charges have been filed and they are investigating the shooting and interviewing witnesses.

"The investigation remains open and active," the Sheriff's office said in a statement.

Entertainment news site Deadline cited a source in the Sheriff's office as saying that Baldwin was questioned by investigators and later released.

Baldwin went to the sheriff's office willingly and provided a statement to investigators, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported, citing spokesperson Juan Rios.

Deputies were still trying to determine whether what happened was an accident, the newspaper added. Rios did not immediately respond to requests for information from Reuters.

Baldwin's representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Earlier on Thursday, news magazine People reported that a spokesperson for Baldwin had said there was an "accident" involving the "misfire of a prop gun with blanks."

Baldwin was seen "distraught and in tears" as he spoke on the phone outside the sheriff's office headquarters on Thursday, the Santa Fe New Mexican wrote.

Baldwin, 63, is a co-producer of "Rust", a Western movie set in 1880s Kansas, and plays the eponymous character who is an outlaw grandfather of a 13-year-old boy convicted of an accidental killing.

Production of the film had been halted for an "undetermined period," several news outlets quoted the film's production company, Rust Movie Productions LLC, as saying.

An e-mail to an address for the film production, which was listed on a New Mexico government statement, went unanswered.

The shooting evoked memories of an on-set accident in 1993 when U.S. actor Brandon Lee, son of Bruce Lee, died aged 28 after being fatally wounded by a prop gun filming "The Crow".

"Our hearts go out to the family of Halyna Hutchins and to Joel Souza and all involved in the incident on 'Rust'. No one should ever be killed by a gun on a film set. Period," said a tweet from Lee's account, which is handled by his sister.

BAN ON SOME PROP GUNS?

The accident renewed debate about whether certain types of prop guns should be banned.

"This suggestion doesn't help any of them, but it's time to stop being macho about blanks and end the practice," said Ben Rockula, a director.

Earlier on Thursday, Baldwin posted a picture of himself on Instagram sporting a grey beard and dressed in Western cowboy-style attire in front of trailers. He appeared to have a fake blood stain on his shirt and jacket.

"Back to in person at the office. Blimey ... it's exhausting," he wrote. The post was deleted late on Thursday night.

Known for his impersonations of former U.S. President Donald Trump on NBC's comedy sketch show "Saturday Night Live," Baldwin has a long history in film and television, including roles in "Glengarry Glen Ross" and "30 Rock."

Hutchins, 42, who was originally from Ukraine and grew up on a Soviet military base in the Arctic Circle, once worked as an investigative reporter in Europe, according to her website.

She graduated from the American Film Institute in 2015 and was selected as one of American Cinematographer's Rising Stars of 2019, according to her website biography.

She described herself as a "Restless Dreamer" and an "Adrenaline junkie" on her Instagram page.

Her last post, two days ago, shows her grinning under a wide-brimmed hat as she rides a horse. "One of the perks of shooting a western is you get to ride horses on your day off" she captioned the video.

April Wright, a writer, director and producer, paid tribute to her on Facebook.

"I'm in disbelief," wrote Wright. "So young, vibrant, and talented. Such a wonderful soul. My heart goes out to her son and family."

"I can't believe that this could happen in this day and age ... gunfire from a prop gun could kill a crew member? This is a horrible tragedy," said actor Joe Manganiello, who worked with Hutchins on the 2020 action movie "Archenemy".

Representatives for Hutchins did not immediately respond to a request for information about her death.

Souza, 48, lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and two children, according to the IMDB website. His LinkedIn page credits him as the "writer/director" of action film Crown Vic and comedy Christmas Trade.

"This is still an active investigation and we do not yet have all the facts," said SAG-AFTRA, which describes itself as the world's biggest labor union representing performers and broadcasters.

"We will continue to work with production, the other unions, and the authorities to investigate this incident and to understand how to prevent such a thing from happening again."

Reporting by Bhargav Acharya in Bengaluru and Alexandra Ulmer in San Francisco; Editing by Karishma Singh, Noeleen Walder, Muralikumar Anantharaman and Mike Collett-White

Not sure if it was an accident. It seems like the media is more concerned about the gun than the person who fired it. kek.

I wonder if he had any firearm training?

[Daedius]

Question is why's it got live rounds instead of blanks [Went through the cinematographer hitting another behind]?

[gondrin]

https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/al...ay-2021-10-22/



Not sure if it was an accident. It seems like the media is more concerned about the gun than the person who fired it. kek.

I wonder if he had any firearm training?

That isn't the thing. The thing people should be asking is how it got live rounds into it in the first place. Only time the person who fired it would be relevant is if they were the one who had the bullets and loaded the gun in the first place.

Otherwise, it is a tragic accident that also happened to Brandon Lee. Question I would have is why are there live rounds on the set to begin with.

[Belize]

Question is why's it got live rounds instead of blanks [Went through the cinematographer hitting another behind]?

The prop union walked out over poor working conditions, and from what we know this was a relatively low budget production to begin with.

Chances are, someone who shouldn't have been handling props was the one tasked with loading the weapon

[anveena]

At least he now knows the answer to this question

[s_bushido]

It seems like the media is more concerned about the gun than the person who fired it. kek.

Of course that's your take...

Literally the first result when you google his name is a story about shady shit going on on set with prop safety and misfires. So it's easy to assume that some jackoff on the crew gave him a loaded weapon and he didn't know it.

[Local Skinwalker]

it's Like Brandon Lee all over again o_O

[muto]

Hopefully he, and the person that handed him the gun gets charged with something. Simple firearm safety could have prevented this. If someone handed me a gun as a prop I would still check to see if it had live ammunition in it.

[Shadowferal]

Shitty accidents happen.

----->moving on...

[Citizen T]

That isn't the thing. The thing people should be asking is how it got live rounds into it in the first place. Only time the person who fired it would be relevant is if they were the one who had the bullets and loaded the gun in the first place.

Otherwise, it is a tragic accident that also happened to Brandon Lee. Question I would have is why are there live rounds on the set to begin with.

How many firearms safety rules did Alec Baldwin break? Not an accident, but negligence .

He should be charged with involuntary manslaughter in accordance with New Mexico law.

[Benggaul]

I must be missing the part of the article that says the gun had live ammunition in it since so many of you are mentioning it. You guys are aware that blanks can also be dangerous and have been responsible for accidental deaths in the past, right?

As far as Baldwin goes, the article also doesn't say whether or not he was discharging the gun as part of a scene as directed or if he was just "goofing off" in-between takes or something. I dislike Baldwin for some of the things he's said/done in the past, but I sincerely doubt he meant to actually cause harm to anyone here and doubt the fault is his so much as it's a freak accident. I'll reserve judgement until more facts come out. Either way, I feel bad for everyone on that set, Baldwin included. I can't imagine how horrible they must all feel.

[unfilteredJW]

How many firearms safety rules did Alec Baldwin break? Not an accident, but negligence .

He should be charged with involuntary manslaughter in accordance with New Mexico law.

I’m sure this post has nothing to do with him making fun of your Fuhrer.

[gondrin]

How many firearms safety rules did Alec Baldwin break? Not an accident, but negligence .

He should be charged with involuntary manslaughter in accordance with New Mexico law.

Don't get me wrong here. Baldwin does deserve some blame as far as negligence goes. Anyone that even remotely knows anything about firearms knows not to point any firearm at anything that you don't plan to shoot.

However, outside of being ignorant of firearm safety(and anyone planning to use any firearm(even non-lethal types) should brush up on firearm safety), I cannot fault him other then an accident. I do see the family possibly suing him(since he was a producer) or the studio for the death. Other then that, most he will see is a fine and no jail time unless some evidence comes out stating that this was a more planned thing then a tragic accident.

- - - Updated - - -

I must be missing the part of the article that says the gun had live ammunition in it since so many of you are mentioning it. You guys are aware that blanks can also be dangerous and have been responsible for accidental deaths in the past, right?

As far as Baldwin goes, the article also doesn't say whether or not he was discharging the gun as part of a scene as directed or if he was just "goofing off" in-between takes or something. I dislike Baldwin for some of the things he's said/done in the past, but I sincerely doubt he meant to actually cause harm to anyone here and doubt the fault is his so much as it's a freak accident. I'll reserve judgement until more facts come out. Either way, I feel bad for everyone on that set, Baldwin included. I can't imagine how horrible they must all feel.

Here is an article stating that there was one live round loaded somewhere in the gun.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...?ocid=msedgntp

"A live single round was accidentally fired on set by the principal actor, hitting both the Director of Photography, Local 600 member Halyna Hutchins, and Director Joel Souza," the email from IATSE union Secretary-Treasurer Anthony Pawluc said. "Local 44 has confirmed that the Props, Set Decoration, Special Effects, and Construction Departments were staffed by New Mexico crew members. There were no Local 44 members on the call sheet."

[Citizen T]

I must be missing the part of the article that says the gun had live ammunition in it since so many of you are mentioning it. You guys are aware that blanks can also be dangerous and have been responsible for accidental deaths in the past, right?

As far as Baldwin goes, the article also doesn't say whether or not he was discharging the gun as part of a scene as directed or if he was just "goofing off" in-between takes or something. I dislike Baldwin for some of the things he's said/done in the past, but I sincerely doubt he meant to actually cause harm to anyone here and doubt the fault is his so much as it's a freak accident. I'll reserve judgement until more facts come out. Either way, I feel bad for everyone on that set, Baldwin included. I can't imagine how horrible they must all feel.

I also doubt that he meant to cause harm, but it was not an accident. He was negligent. One should ALWAYS treat every firearm as if it is loaded. One should NEVER point a firearm at anyone/anything they do not intend to destroy.

[Specialka]

Always check if you have live ammo in a gun, especially if someone else handed it to you. Basic safety gun.

[Citizen T]

Don't get me wrong here. Baldwin does deserve some blame as far as negligence goes. Anyone that even remotely knows anything about firearms knows not to point any firearm at anything that you don't plan to shoot.

However, outside of being ignorant of firearm safety(and anyone planning to use any firearm(even non-lethal types) should brush up on firearm safety), I cannot fault him other then an accident. I do see the family possibly suing him(since he was a producer) or the studio for the death. Other then that, most he will see is a fine and no jail time unless some evidence comes out stating that this was a more planned thing then a tragic accident.

While you are likely correct about the outcome, it will because he is Alec Baldwin. We peons in a similar situation would already be arrested, jailed, and trying to make bail.

[Benggaul]

Here is an article stating that there was one live round loaded somewhere in the gun.

Thanks. That wasn't included in the article linked in the OP. That also sounds like it's more on the person who loaded the prop gun than Baldwin, though after all of the accidents in the past that have involved prop guns there should also have been a gun safety person on set to prevent this sort of thing from happening. Again.

[Shadowferal]

While I agree with the overall sentiment regarding furearm safety, (had a course myself...), the circumstances aren't criminal here.

[gondrin]

Thanks. That wasn't included in the article linked in the OP. That also sounds like it's more on the person who loaded the prop gun than Baldwin, though after all of the accidents in the past that have involved prop guns there should also have been a gun safety person on set to prevent this sort of thing from happening. Again.

Honestly, when it comes to this type of stuff, the person shooting the gun should be the one loading it. Removes nearly all issues with this type of scenario. That way they can check the rounds while loading it.

[Citizen T]

While I agree with the overall sentiment regarding furearm safety, (had a course myself...), the circumstances aren't criminal here.

If you agree with firearms safety, then you must agree that the user was negligent - he violated pretty much every rule of firearms safety. Being negligent here means it is criminal - at least in New Mexico it is. It is a 4th degree felony called Involuntary Manslaughter.