SANTA FE, New Mexico — According to the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office, the director of photography on a film starring Alec Baldwin was slain, and the film's director was injured. According to the sheriff's office, they were shot by a prop handgun discharged by Baldwin, who is also a producer on the film.
The director of photography, Halyna Hutchins, 42, was evacuated to the University of New Mexico hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Director Joel Souza, 48, was the second victim and was being treated at Christus St. Vincent Medical Center.
The investigation is ongoing, and no charges have been filed in this incident, according to authorities. Witnesses are still being interviewed by detectives.
The Western film "Rust," which Souza is directing and Baldwin is producing and acting in, has been paused in production.
According to a Baldwin spokeswoman, an accident occurred on set when a prop gun with blanks misfired.
According to the Santa Fe New Mexican, Baldwin was seen crying outside the sheriff's office on Thursday, but attempts to reach him for comment were fruitless.
"According to detectives," sheriff's spokesperson Juan Rios told the Albuquerque Journal, "it appears that the sequence being recorded featured the use of a prop pistol when it was discharged." "Investigators are looking into how and what type of projectile was fired."
Rios said deputies were dispatched to the Bonanza Creek Ranch movie location around 2 p.m. after 911 calls reported a person being shot on set.
According to a press statement from the New Mexico Film Office, filming for "Rust" will continue into early November.
According to the Internet Movie Database website, the film is about a 13-year-old boy who is left to care for himself and his younger brother when their parents die in 1880s Kansas. After being sentenced to death for the unintentional killing of a local rancher, the kid goes on the run with his long-estranged grandfather (played by Baldwin).
Brandon Lee, the 28-year-old son of martial-arts legend Bruce Lee, died in 1993 after being struck by a.44-caliber slug during filming a death scene for the film "The Crow." An autopsy revealed a bullet lodged near his spine, despite the fact that the gun was supposed to have shot a blank.