Speculation abounds in Baldwin shooting case

The fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of "Rust" by actor and producer Alec Baldwin is still under investigation. But this hasn't stopped speculation from swirling, especially on social media. 

Last week, Baldwin and his wife and children were followed on a Vermont highway by reporters. 

"I can't answer any questions about the investigation, I can't," the actor told the paparazzi after pulling up by the side of the road, ABC News reported. "It's an active investigation. A woman died. She was my friend," said Baldwin of the tragic incident that occurred in New Mexico on October 21 after he fired a prop gun on set.

Oscar-nominated for his supporting role in 2003 film "The Cooler," and a Golden Globe winner for his lead role in the hit TV series "30 Rock," Baldwin is more recently known for his caustic impersonations of former US President Donald Trump — whom he once likened to Hitler — on the NBC comedy sketch show "Saturday Night Live."

This has also made the Hollywood "liberal" the target of right-wing figures in the wake of the shooting. The former president's son, Donald Trump Jr., quickly seized the opportunity to mock Baldwin, with his own merchandise website selling T-shirts with the slogan: "Guns don’t kill people, Alec Baldwin kills people."

Meanwhile, conservative commentator Candace Owens posted a since deleted post on Twitter that accused the "30 Rock" star of murder. 

"Alec Baldwin spent 4 years dedicated to painting Donald Trump and his supporters as evil murderers," the right-wing pundit wrote. "What has happened to Alec would be an example of poetic justice if it weren't for the actual innocent people that were murdered by him."

 

Was the set really unsafe?

Baldwin has welcomed further debate about gun safety protocols on film sets following what he called "a one in a trillion event." 

Meanwhile, there have been a lot of claims about the poor working and safety conditions on the set, and the fact that the apprentice armorer who was responsible for loading guns with blanks was not part of a union.

Writer and director Joel Souza conceived "Rust" with producer Alec Baldwin as a "passion project" on a relatively low budget that would go straight to a streaming service or TV. It was to be shot on a tight three-week schedule with limited resources.

Some camera operators had walked off the set in protest of what they said were long hours and other difficult working conditions, according to Santa Fe authorities.

But other crew members have denied this version of events. Baldwin himself reposted on Instagram social media posts by Teresa Magpale Davis, who worked in wardrobe as a costume designer. 

"I worked on this movie. The story being spun of us being overworked and surrounded by unsafe, chaotic conditions is bullsh..t," she posted. 

Davis said the hours were not longer than usual, and that the armorer who loaded the gun, Hannah Gutierrez Reed, was part of an overflow list on which potential union members first get experience. She had been "apprenticed to a well-known armorer and had been in the same position in the same type of movie a few months before," wrote Davis. 

Claims of sabotage

Baldwin reposted the claims on the same day that lawyers for Hannah Gutierrez Reed suggested that someone deliberately put a live round into the gun used by the actor when he accidentally shot the cinematographer and director Joel Souza — who has since recovered from his injuries. 

As reported by Reuters, Gutierrez Reed had told assistant director David Halls that the prop gun was "cold": industry code that it was safe. She also spun the cylinder and checked the rounds before handing it to Halls, who then took the gun to where Baldwin was rehearsing a scene.

One of her lawyers, Jason Bowles, claims that it is possible that real bullets that appear similar to dummies were purposely placed in the box.

"We're afraid that could have been what happened here, that somebody intended to sabotage this set with a live round intentionally placed in a box of dummies," Bowles said in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America."

Though he does not believe that anyone "had any intent there was going to be a tragedy of homicide," someone might instead have "wanted to do something to cause a safety incident on set. That's what we believe happened."

Speaking on NBC's "Today" show, he speculated that the motive might have been "to prove a point, to say that they're disgruntled, they're unhappy."

"And we know that people had already walked off the set the day before," Bowles added, referring to the camera operators who left the site.

Baldwin has yet to comment on the speculation around sabotage. 

"So what has to happen now is that, when it does go wrong and it is this horrible catastrophic thing, some new measures have to take place," he said. "Rubber guns, plastic guns, no live, real armaments," he added. 

This view was echoed by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson this week when he confirmed his own production company will no longer use real firearms. "Moving forward on any Seven Bucks production, television or film or otherwise, we will not use real guns ever again," Johnson said on Wednesday at the Los Angeles premiere of his new film, "Red Notice."