The fatal shooting that occurred during the filming of the film “Rust” last month was preceded by three accidental weapon discharges on set, The Los Angeles Times reports.
According to the newspaper, one incident that occurred during filming involved Baldwin’s stunt double accidentally firing a blank round after being told that the gun was “cold,” while Lane Luper, the A-camera first assistant, mentioned that a young woman from the props department “actually shot herself in the foot”; Luper did note, however, that the round was a blank.
The attorneys of Hannah Gutierrez Reed, the armourer on the set of “Rust,” also insisted that she “fought for training, days to maintain weapons and proper time to prepare for gunfire, but ultimately was overruled by production and her department,” and that “the whole production set became unsafe due to various factors, including lack of safety meetings.”
The newspaper also points at other “red flags” that emerged during filming, like the absence of a medic on set.
"Somebody dropped a countersink bit and it stabbed me in the hand. I had to take care of it myself and I’m still healing from it," one person working on set said.
"It always felt like the budget was more important than crew members," Luper, remarked. "Everything was about the schedule and the budget."
Last week, cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and director Joel Souza were injured after a prop gun used by Alec Baldwin during filming went off, with Hutchins later dying in hospital.