Alec Baldwin fatally shoots woman with prop gun on movie set

Man of Honour
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Which really shouldn't happen - these days they are pretty strict about isolation between live firing and blank firing weapons on production with a whole process which is supposed to be gone through if a weapon moves between those two.

Looks like the narrative at the moment is to try and hang it all on Hannah Gutierrez-Reed - rightly or wrongly but ultimately the failings go far beyond just her by the sound of it.
 
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Deleted member 236143

D

Deleted member 236143

Complete complacency leads to mistakes and accidents. Should be a proper armoury check in and out procedure. Sandbag type bins to fire the weapon to make sure it is empty. And should be empty on set and loaded on set and made live. Clearing the area of all non essential staff before any prop fire takes place.
Some movies have had famous scenes using live ammo for the added effect. There is a lot of strict and safe procedures. This is just a tragic case of complacent events.
Guns are never safe.
 
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If only there was a way - a useful way that is not posting on the internet from somewhere nowhere near the event and with almost certain lack of credentials and evidence and professional expertise relating to this matter - in which a body of people could review the evidence by talking to the actual people involved and reviewing the situation with a view of working out what happened and how, the responsibilities and culpability (if any) for what happens next. My main concern is that there are 445 factual posts in this thread and it would be a terrible shame if not only did the case not have a body of people to police the issue (say, there's a name for what they could call themselves!) but it were deprived of 445 expert opinions.

"Don't point a gun at someone ever ever ever ever ever!!!!!"

"Sir, we are making a western action movie..."
 
Soldato
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Looks like the narrative at the moment is to try and hang it all on Hannah Gutierrez-Reed

She is the armourer, isn’t she? This is her responsibility, for which she gets paid. And for which she pays the price if she fails in her responsibility. She didn’t have to take the job.
 
Caporegime
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She is the armourer, isn’t she? This is her responsibility, for which she gets paid. And for which she pays the price if she fails in her responsibility. She didn’t have to take the job.

I know right. Crazy that the responsibility for it will fall on the person responsible for it.
 
Caporegime
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Looks like the narrative at the moment is to try and hang it all on Hannah Gutierrez-Reed - rightly or wrongly but ultimately the failings go far beyond just her by the sound of it.

She is directly responsible, so it seems fair that she carry the can. That said, you're right that it appears there were many more systematic failures on set, and she shouldn't be carry the can alone.
 
Soldato
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Swiss cheese

Thats the sad truth of this, there were lots of mistakes made by lots of people which allowed all the various holes to line up and it would only have taken one person to do something different and this would have been a "lucky escape" rather than a fatality.
 
Soldato
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One can imagine that this situations leads to many people bringing up old feuds as proof of their worldview. Very difficult for us to discern what is a grudge coming out and what is objective.
 
Soldato
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Complete complacency leads to mistakes and accidents. Should be a proper armoury check in and out procedure. Sandbag type bins to fire the weapon to make sure it is empty. And should be empty on set and loaded on set and made live. Clearing the area of all non essential staff before any prop fire takes place.
Some movies have had famous scenes using live ammo for the added effect. There is a lot of strict and safe procedures. This is just a tragic case of complacent events.
Guns are never safe.

That is probably what happens over here, but this is the US...
 
Man of Honour
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Looks like the narrative at the moment is to try and hang it all on Hannah Gutierrez-Reed - rightly or wrongly but ultimately the failings go far beyond just her by the sound of it.
I don't know the exact role of the armourer. but I would expect they not only directly supervise the weapons but also put in place processes around gun handling on and off the set. If processes were not being followed then I would also imagine it is the armourers responsibility to escalate that to the producers to ensure they are being enforced. So unless she escalated it and it was ignored then she very likely is responsible in some way; that might be lack of process, lack of supervision or lack of escalation.

But frankly, unlike 99% of the posters in this thread, I freely admit to knowing nothing about this situation :)
 
Caporegime
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I posted about that yesterday but @Colonel_Klinck took issue with it being reported by TMZ.

Funnily enough, in a story about Hollywood, TMZ got the scoop first. Notably, the other news outlets are attributing TMZ as the original source.

Looks like the narrative at the moment is to try and hang it all on Hannah Gutierrez-Reed - rightly or wrongly but ultimately the failings go far beyond just her by the sound of it.

She probably does have a lot of responsibility here tbh.. though the press coverage seems to be more about the AD and bringing up past incidents/allegations, grudges etc.. I guess Baldwin perhaps has the best publicists here to try and sway stuff away from him too.

She is directly responsible, so it seems fair that she carry the can. That said, you're right that it appears there were many more systematic failures on set, and she shouldn't be carry the can alone.

IMO all three the armourer, AD + Baldwin (pulled the trigger + EP & owns the production company responsible for the whole thing) have some blame.
 
Caporegime
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More information has come to light

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-59035483

Actor Alec Baldwin was drawing a revolver across his body and pointing it at a camera during a rehearsal on a US film set when it fired with tragic results, legal documents have revealed.

Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed and director Joel Souza was injured while filming Rust on Thursday.

Affidavits containing statements from Souza and camera operator Reid Russell have shed more light on what happened.

Baldwin was handed a prop gun and told it was unloaded, court documents said.

Souza was standing behind Hutchins when they were both hit, according to the affidavit.

"Joel stated that they had Alec sitting in a pew in a church building setting, and he was practicing a cross draw," it said.

"Joel said he was looking over the shoulder of [Hutchins], when he heard what sounded like a whip and then loud pop."

The document said 42-year-old Hutchins was shot in the chest area.

"Joel then vaguely remembers [Hutchins] complaining about her stomach and grabbing her mid-section. Joel also said [Hutchins] began to stumble backwards and she was assisted to the ground."

Russell, who was standing next to Hutchins at the time of the shooting, told officials she said she could not feel her legs.

When asked how Baldwin treated firearms on the set, Russell said the actor was very careful, citing an instance when the star made sure a child actor was not near him when a gun was being discharged.
 
Caporegime
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During a rehearsal? So there shouldn't have been any need for any caps etc.. that seemingly could have been checked rather quickly by both the AD, then by Baldwin.

Doesn't seem like he was "very careful" here tbh...
 
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