Actor Alec Baldwin shoots filmer dead with prop gun on set

Actor Alec Baldwin shoots filmer dead with prop gun on set

United States movie star Alec Baldwin has fired a prop gun on a film set, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza, according to authorities. Police said the incident occurred on Thursday on the set of independent feature film Rust at the Bonanza Creek Ranch, a production location south of Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico state. “The sheriff’s office confirms that two individuals were shot on the set of Rust. Halyna Hutchins, 42, director of photography, and Joel Souza, 48, director, were shot when a prop firearm was discharged by Alec Baldwin, 68, producer and actor,” the police said in a statement. No charges have yet been filed regarding the incident, said the police, adding they are investigating the shooting and interviewing witnesses. According to authorities, Hutchins was transported by helicopter to the University of New Mexico Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, while Souza was taken by ambulance to Christus St Vincent Regional Medical centre to undergo treatment for his injuries. It was not immediately known how serious Souza’s injuries were, although actress Frances Fisher tweeted early Friday that “Souza texted me that he’s out of hospital.” A spokesperson for Baldwin said there was an accident on the set involving the misfire of a prop gun with blanks. “Mr Baldwin was interviewed by detectives,” Santa Fe sheriff spokesman Juan Rios told the AFP news agency. “He provided statements and answered their questions. He came in voluntarily and he left the building after he finished his interviews. No charges have been filed and no arrests have been made.” The Santa Fe New Mexican reported Baldwin was seen on Thursday outside the sheriff’s office in tears, but attempts to get a comment from him were unsuccessful. Baldwin later issued a statement on Twitter saying: “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.” “I am in touch with her husband, offering my support to him and his family. My heart is broken for her husband, their son, and all who knew and loved Halyna,” Baldwin said. Deadline cited a source in the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Department as saying that Baldwin was questioned by investigators and later released. Baldwin is a co-producer in the Western movie set in 1880s Kansas and plays the eponymous Rust, an outlaw grandfather of a 13-year-old boy convicted of accidental murder.