Sheriff: Projectile recovered from movie director's shoulder

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By MORGAN LEE, SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN and CEDAR ATTANASIO

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico authorities said Wednesday they have recovered a lead projectile believed to have been fired from the gun used in the fatal movie-set shooting.

Investigators discussed their initial findings in the shooting in which actor Alec Baldwin fired a gun, killing a cinematographer and wounding the director.

Testing is being done to determine whether the lead projectile recovered from director Joel Souza’s shoulder was fired from the gun — a long Colt revolver — used by Baldwin. Two other guns seized include a single-action revolver that may have been modified and a plastic prop gun that was described as a revolver.

Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said it’s too early to comment on whether any charges will be filed. He also noted that 500 rounds of ammunition — a mix of blanks, dummy rounds and live rounds — were found while searching the set.



A bouquet of flowers is left to honor cinematographer Halyna Hutchins outside the Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe, N.M., Sunday, Oct. 24, 2021. Hutchins died after actor Alec Baldwin fired a fatal gunshot from a prop gun that he had been told was safe. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/prop-gun-shooting-entertainment-shootings-gun-politics-santa-fe-e6b4d769e5df47ee0c23d4ad69f1992d

[Wingus Dingus]

1. Loaded with dummies...and one real bullet.

Russian roulette.

[PaulRevere08]

3. Why would you ever have a live round on a set? The more I read

the more surprised I am at how much risk actors are put in for the sake of realism.

[Wingus Dingus]

4. It wasn't for realism, it was because someone or some people

were misusing the guns for off-set real shooting time--although it can't be ruled out that someone intentionally put real rounds on the set, or in the gun itself, to make trouble.

[RobinA]

6. I'm With You

I had no idea gunplay was part of a movie set. I figured they went through the motions and dubbed in the sound.

[rsdsharp]

5. My God, that's a badly written article.

[Crepuscular]

7. ...

A couple of clarifications;

The term "Long Colt" refers to the caliber, not the pistol. The .45 Colt cartridge is often referred to as the .45 Long Colt, it's a centerfire .45 caliber cartridge originally designed for the Colt 1873 single action Army Revolver, commonly known as the Colt "peacemaker", the gun most often portrayed in Western Movies and likely the gun that Baldwin was using in this movie. Peacemakers were also chambered in a number of other calibers.

The article refers to three types of ammunition found on the set, blanks, dummy rounds and live rounds. Putting aside for the moment that on movie sets, the term "Live" rounds usually refers to blanks (because they contain powder and go boom) and that there should never, ever be live functional rounds (made up of a primer, powder and bullet) on a movie set, for the purposes of discussion lets distinguish between blanks (powder but no projectile/bullet) and live rounds (powder, projectile/bullet).

Lets also define dummy rounds as having a spent (dented) primer, or no primer, no powder but has a bullet projecting from the top of the cartridge. These rounds can't fire as they have no active primer and no powder, they are inert. They are used for visual close ups or when the bullets need to be seen, on camera, at the front of a revolvers cylinder. They look like functional live ammo but you can quickly tell them apart simply by looking at the primer at the base of the cartridge. If the primer is dented or missing, then it's a dummy round, not a blank or live round. It would have taken either the AD or Baldwin literally less than 10 seconds to visually inspect the cartridges in the revolver, to make sure they did not have intact primers. You don't have to take them out of the gun, just open the loading gate and rotate the cylinder manually and check each primer.

Blanks, on a movie set, are easy to identify because they have intact (undented) primers, with the end of the cartridge either crimped or plugged, with nothing sticking out of the end. Off-set in the real world, blanks can be harder to identify as there is a type of bullet called a "wadcutter" which has a flat nose and can be loaded level with the end of the cartridge, so there is no obvious bullet sticking out of the end. It's sadly not uncommon for some Idiot to shoot someone with a revolver loaded with wadcutters, thinking that they were playing a trick to scare someone, shooting at them with a blank. Visually they look similar to blanks, hence the tragic confusion when one is substituted for the other.

In any event, Live ammo should never be introduced onto a movie set, as seems to have occurred in this scenario. The Armorer, AD and Baldwin all share culpability for this accident. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

[exboyfil]

9. Thanks I deleted my post because your explanation is much better

I didn't know you could tell dummies from live rounds by looking at the primer. That makes not doing a final check ridiculous.

I think everyone who knew there were live rounds on the set share culpability in the accident. The shoot should have been shut down until that issue was resolved.

A cop in Florida actually killed a woman with a wadcutter he loaded thinking it was a blank that he was using in a demonstration. The fact that he even intended to fire a blank at the woman was wrong. He was convicted of manslaughter but served no jail time.

[yagotme]

12. Rule #1:

EVERY firearm is loaded, until you verify that it's not. Then you treat it as if it IS loaded. Every firearm safety violation you can think of, was violated on that set.

Supposedly, nepotism was at work, too. The armorer (Hannah Gutierrez Reed), a 24 yr old "former model", is the daughter of an armorer that has worked in Hollywood for some time. Reportedly, she has worked a previous film, where they also had trouble, and she had stated that she didn't know if she really wanted the job. If you don't want the job, dear, step aside and let someone with experience do it. It's a heavy responsibility, being the "responsible person" around firearms when a lot of the people handling them don't know squat about them.

[lapfog_1]

13. Rule #2

Never point a gun, loaded or not, at someone unless you intend to shoot them.

Now in this case the actor may have been told to aim at or near the camera (or where the camera would be placed since this was rehearsal) and the director of photography might have placed herself in that area to get a feel for what the camera would later capture for the film.

But, in general, one should never point a gun (loaded or not) at anyone unless your intent is to shoot that person.

[rockfordfile]

14. BS Baldwin has zero culpability in this accident. Where do you get that bs from?

[Crepuscular]

15. ...

Baldwin absolutely has culpability for pointing a firearm at another person, cocking the hammer and pulling the trigger. The Armorer did not make him cock the hammer and pull the trigger and neither did the AD. You never, ever do that with a real firearm unless it your intent to shoot them.

Suggesting that Baldwin is blameless because someone handed him a gun and he presumed that it was not loaded is BS. He violated the cardinal rule of gun safety and had he not done so then two individuals would not have been shot.

Now the Armorer and the AD also have culpability of their own but giving Baldwin a pass when, at the end of the day, it was his action that resulted in the fatality is Bullshit.

[Mysterian]

16. Culpability implies wrongdoing or fault

There is no evidence of negligence on Baldwin's part. An actor in a movie has no duty to inspect the ammunition before playing his part. That is the duty of the armorer.

[Crepuscular]

17. ...

The negligence was not his failure to inspect the ammunition of check to see if the firearm was loaded, although those would have been smart things to do, as you say, the talent should not have the duty to do so.

It is totally negligent and breaks safety standards, to point a pistol at three human beings, cock the hammer and then pull the trigger. That is negligent and it resulted in one of them being killed and one being injured.

If the pistol had to be pointed at the camera, to make sure that angle was correct, they either could have cleared the set or used a dummy weapon.

Simply pointing the pistol at the camera did not cause the DP's death. Regardless of whether the armorer F'ed up an allowed a live round on the set, which somehow made it into the pistol and whether the AD failed to check the pistol and handed it to Baldwin, incorrectly stating that it was a cold gun, neither of those acts, in and of themselves, would have resulted in the death of the DP and the injury of the director, without the three actions of Baldwin, which were pointing the pistol at 3 people, cocking the hammer and then pulling the trigger. Absent those three actions by Baldwin, everybody goes home alive and nobody gets hurt.

That is not to say that the others are not also culpable but Baldwin bears a substantial part of the responsibility because it was ultimately his actions that resulted in the death of the DP. Sorry, I'm not willing to give someone who caused an innocent persons death a pass simply because they are on our side of the political spectrum.

[yagotme]

18. One: He's the one that pulled the trigger on an actual firearm, without personally checking it.

Two: As a producer, I'm sure he has the say on who is and isn't hired, depending on budget, experience, (or lack of), etc. His responsibility is to take part in the hiring of the properly trained and experienced film crew, to avoid the failures prior to his own, as the actor.

Yes, it is the duty of the armorer to inspect the ammo/firearms used. They obviously didn't/couldn't. It was the AD's responsibility to check it again before handing it to Baldwin. He didn't/failed to do it properly. It was also Baldwin's responsibility, per common sense, and for safety's sake, to check a functioning firearm before cocking it, and pointing it at fellow human beings. This isn't the first time he's handled firearms in a movie, and I'd bet a dollar that someone in the past has told him not to point a gun at someone else and pull the trigger.

[Hav]

20. I'm with you but you'll lose your mind arguing with people

who cannot see the difference between handling a real gun with the intent to shoot real ammo on a gun range and an actor.

So far, there doesn't seem to be evidence that Baldwin is at fault but people are quick with their accusations before the investigation is even over.

[Martin68]

10. Why was there even a single live round on the set? That flies in the face of standard gun safety.

[Wingus Dingus]

11. Whoever's been putting out the info/rumor that there was

target shooting with real bullets off the set needs to be found and questioned by police, even if TMZ and such needs to give up their sources, because if it's true, then the person pushing this info should have shared this knowledge with senior staff and a huge deal made about this before it ever turned into a killing.

[ripcord]

19. I am in no way surprised by this

There is no reason for guns that are capable of live fire to be used as movie props.