On Thursday, we reported about the accidental shooting death of 42-yr-old cinematographer Halayna Hutchins by Alec Baldwin, the hot-headed, anti-gun, far-left Hollywood actor. Baldwin also wounded the director Joel Souza on the set of “Rust,” a film being shot in south Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Baldwin was the main producer of the show.
Variety reports – Hutchins, 42, was transported by helicopter to the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque, where she died. Souza, 48, was taken by ambulance to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center in Santa Fe, where he is undergoing treatment for his injuries, according to the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s office.
NYP reports – Alec Baldwin, who accidentally killed his cinematographer on the set of his film “Rust,” should have never pointed a gun at another human, even if he believed it was safe, Hollywood safety experts told The Post.
And the actor is now likely to face a gantlet of legal challenges — including possible criminal charges — as both the man who pulled the trigger and as the executive producer responsible for set safety, legal experts said.
“Loaded or unloaded, a weapon never gets pointed at another human being,” Hollywood firearms consultant Bryan Carpenter of Dark Thirty Film Services told The Post.
For safety, all live firearms used in TV and film productions are typically aimed at a dummy point, not at equipment, cast or crew, Carpenter noted. Guns, he said, are never aimed at a person.
You never let the muzzle of a weapon cover something you don’t intend to destroy,” said Carpenter, whose New Orleans-based firm has worked on the sets of scores of TV and film productions. “All guns are always loaded. Even if they are not, treat them as if they are.”
Former filmmaker and former US National Shooting Team member Peter Lake put the blame on Baldwin.
“The buck stops with Alec Baldwin on every level,” he told The Post. “It looks very bad for him. At least the captain of the Titanic had the good sense to go down with the ship.”
“Clearly someone didn’t do their due diligence,” she said. “They should have been checking those guns to make sure there were no live rounds.”
LA defense attorney Denise Bohdan predicted that “anyone running that set will be sued.”
“Yes, Alec Baldwin was the main producer, but it might be found out that another producer did more to cut corners. I don’t think there will be anything as bad as a murder charge, but this is going to be a legal nightmare for Baldwin,” she said.
The production was reportedly troubled over its firearms and general safety on the set.
LA Times called into question the safety of Baldwin’s set – Baldwin’s stunt double accidentally fired two rounds Saturday after being told that the gun was “cold” — lingo for a weapon that doesn’t have any ammunition, including blanks, two crew members who witnessed the episode told the Los Angeles Times.
“There should have been an investigation into what happened,” said the crew member. “There were no safety meetings. There was no assurance that it wouldn’t happen again. All they wanted to do was rush, rush, rush.”
A colleague was so alarmed by the prop gun misfires he sent a text message to the unit production manager. “We’ve now had 3 accidental discharges. This is super unsafe,” according to a copy of the message reviewed by The Times.
Will Alec Baldwin get special treatment because he’s a Hollywood actor?
