Weapon prop bug
After Baldwin’s fatal gunshot accident: Police search Bonanza Creek Ranch
Actor Alec Baldwin had triggered the fatal miss
© Van Tine Dennis / ABACA / Picture Alliance
A shot from a prop gun by actor Alec Baldwin cost a camerawoman her life. The police have now searched the set of the western “Rust” in Mexico.
The fatal shot from the prop weapon of the actor Alec Baldwin at a camerawoman on the set of a western film continues to be a mystery. The police told the German Press Agency on Friday evening (local time) about the exact circumstances of the incident in the US state of New Mexico and the fatal projectile. The investigators searched the location.
The “New York Times” quoted from a police report that an assistant director on the set of the western “Rust” had handed over a so-called prop weapon to Baldwin with the information that it did not contain live ammunition. But when the actor fired the gun on Thursday, the tragedy broke out: the 42-year-old camerawoman Halyna Hutchins suffered fatal injuries, director Joel Souza was also hit and taken to hospital with a shoulder injury. But he could later be released, as US media reported.
Alec Baldwin offers condolences
“There are no words to express the shock and sadness at the tragic accident that ended Halyna Hutchins’ life,” wrote Baldwin on Twitter on Friday. She was “wife, mother and deeply admired colleague of ours” at the same time. “I am fully cooperating with the police investigation to find out how this tragedy came about. And I am in contact with her husband to offer my support to him and his family.” The thought of “her husband, her son and all those who knew and loved Halyna” breaks his heart.
According to the police, no criminal charges have been made so far. The shooting has been suspended until further notice.
Employees complain about conditions
The shooting of the low-budget western “Rust”, on which Baldwin also worked as a producer, had begun at the Bonanza Creek Ranch in early October. Numerous films have already been produced on the site near a former gold rush town in the New Mexico desert.
According to a report in the “Los Angeles Times” on Friday, employees on the set complained about a lack of safety precautions and poor conditions such as long working hours. The newspaper reported, citing unnamed sources, that several employees of the camera crew had left the location a few hours before the fatal incident in protest of the working conditions. Hollywood security protocols were not strictly followed, it said.
According to the Los Angeles Times, a property master or a licensed weapons master is usually responsible for the weapons used on the set. Its tasks also include loading them with blank cartridges and explaining how to use them to the actors and assistant directors. Live ammunition is prohibited on the set.