Alec Baldwin appeared distraught in two photographs taken after a deadly incident on the set of his movie “Rust” in New Mexico on Thursday.
The actor, 63, fired a prop weapon that killed the movie’s director of photography and injured the director, according to a press release issued Thursday by the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office. A spokesperson for Baldwin said the incident was an “accident” involving the “misfire of a prop gun with blanks.”
In the two photos taken by a photographer with The Sante Fe New Mexican, Baldwin is distressed while in the parking lot of the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s offices. In one image, he appears to be having a serious phone conversation, and in the other picture, he can be seen standing bent over. Baldwin was in tears, the newspaper reported.
After the incident on Thursday, director of photography Halyna Hutchins, 42, was airlifted to the University of New Mexico Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, according to Thursday's statement from the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office. Director Joel Souza, 48, was taken by ambulance to a different hospital to be treated for his injuries.
An investigation into the incident is ongoing, with witnesses being interviewed by detectives, and no charges have been filed, police said.
Some people on social media have been comparing this tragedy to the accidental shooting of actor Brandon Lee, the son of Bruce Lee, during the filming of “The Crow.” In that 1993 incident, actor Michael Massee fired a prop gun with faulty dummy rounds that ended up killing Lee.
“Our hearts go out to the family of Halyna Hutchins and to Joel Souza and all involved in the incident on ‘Rust,’” an official memorial Twitter page of Brandon Bruce Lee tweeted on Friday. “No one should ever be killed by a gun on a film set. Period.”