Baldwin fatally shoots crew member with prop
ACTOR Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun on the set of a Western film and killed the cinematographer, officials have said.
The director of the movie was also wounded, and authorities are investigating what happened.
Halyna Hutchins, cinematographer on Rust, and director Joel Souza were shot on Thursday in the desert on the southern outskirts of Santa Fe.
A spokesperson for Baldwin said there was an accident involving the misfire of a prop gun with blanks.
Santa Fe County Sheriff’s spokesman Juan Rios said detectives were investigating what type of projectile had been discharged and how. No immediate charges were filed.
It was not clear if Baldwin was performing at the time of the shooting or how many rounds were fired and little was known about the weapon.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reported that Baldwin was seen on Thursday outside the sheriff’s office in tears, but attempts to get comment from him were unsuccessful.
The 63-year-old actor is known for his roles in 30 Rock and The Hunt For Red October as well as his impression of former US president Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live.
Prop guns fire blanks, gunpowder charges that produce a flash and a bang but not a hard projectile. But when the trigger is pulled, the paper or plastic wadding is ejected from the barrel with enough force that it can be lethal at close range, as proved to be the case in the death of an actor in 1984. In another on-set accident in 1993, the actor Brandon Lee was killed when a bullet was left in a prop gun.
Gun safety protocol on sets in the
US has dramatically improved since then, said Steven Hall, a veteran director of photography in the UK.
But he said one of the riskiest positions to be in was operating the camera – noting that a person would be in the line of fire in gripping scenes where someone appeared to point a gun at the audience.
Hutchins, 42, was airlifted to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Souza, 48, was taken by ambulance to a medical centre.
“The details are unclear at this moment, but we are working to learn more, and we support a full investigation into this tragic event,” International Cinematographers Guild president John Lindley and executive director Rebecca Rhine said in a statement.
Sheriff’s deputies responded at about 2pm to the film set at the Bonanza Creek Ranch after 911 calls described a person being shot there, Mr Rios said.
The ranch has been used in dozens of films, including the recent Tom Hanks Western News Of The World.
“This investigation remains open and active,” Mr Rios said in a statement. “No charges have been filed in regard to this incident. Witnesses continue to be interviewed by detectives.”
Hutchins, a 2015 graduate of the American Film Institute, worked as director of photography on the 2020 action film Archenemy, starring Joe Manganiello. She was named a “rising star” by American Cinematographer in 2019.