ALEC BALDWIN ‘HEARTBROKEN’ AT FATAL SHOOTING ON SET OF MOVIE
▶ Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed when the actor pulled the trigger on a gun he didn’t know contained live rounds
No charges have been filed in a fatal shooting involving actor Alec Baldwin on the set of the Hollywood film Rust on Thursday.
Baldwin, who is also a producer, was rehearsing a scene for the film at the Bonanza Creek Ranch, south of Santa Fe, New Mexico, when he fired what he thought was a prop gun.
Instead, the gun was loaded with live rounds, and when Baldwin pulled the trigger, he killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
Director Joel Souza, who was standing behind her, was wounded on the shoulder.
The gun was one of three that the film’s armourer, Hannah Gutierrez, had placed on a cart outside a wooden structure where a scene was being acted, according to court records.
Assistant director Dave Halls took the gun from the cart and carried it inside to Baldwin, unaware that it was loaded with live rounds, a detective wrote in the search warrant application.
It was unclear how many rounds were fired. Gutierrez removed a bullet casing from the gun after the shooting, and she gave the weapon to police when they arrived, the court records said.
Baldwin’s bloodstained costume as well as the weapon that was fired and other prop guns and ammunition were taken for examination.
Photos of the actor, 63, known for his roles in 30 Rock and his impression of former president Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live, showed him distraught and doubling over outside the sheriff’s office on Thursday.
Sheriff’s spokesman Juan Rios said no charges were filed and that Baldwin was permitted to travel.
“He’s a free man,” Mr Rios said.
Baldwin said on Twitter that he was co-operating fully with the police investigation.
“There are no words to convey my shock and sadness regarding the tragic accident that took the life of Halyna Hutchins, a wife, mother and deeply admired colleague of ours. My heart is broken for her husband, their son, and all who knew and loved Halyna,” he posted on Twitter.
The incident brought back memories of Brandon Lee, then a rising star, who was killed in a similar on-set accident in 1993 after a bullet was left in a prop gun.
Gun safety protocols have since improved on film sets in the US, and experts said such incidents were rare.
Guns used in making movies are sometimes real weapons that can fire either bullets or blanks, which are gunpowder charges that produce a flash and a bang but no deadly projectile.
Steven Hall, a veteran director of photography in Britain, told the Associated Press that one of the riskiest positions to be in on set is behind the camera because that person is in the line of fire in scenes where an actor appears to point a gun at the audience.
Lee’s sister, Shannon said that her family was once again processing their own pain and
There are no words to convey my shock and sadness regarding the tragic accident that took the life of Halyna
ALEC BALDWIN
Actor and producer of ‘Rust’
that there are no excuses for another shooting incident on set.
“I think that in this day and age with all the special effects that are possible and all of the technology, there is no reason to have a prop gun or a gun on a set that can fire a projectile of any sort,” she told The Hollywood Reporter.
“It is not necessary. I think we wish we had thought to do more 28 years ago, and we would love to do that now.”
Incidentally, Rust is about a teenager who is wanted for the accidental killing of a rancher, and who goes on the run with his grandfather, played by Baldwin.