Just a brief update as of 11:30am CDT, 10/27/21. In a 45 minute debriefing with both the local police and prosecutors, aired on CNN, the following information was given:
A lead projectile was recovered from the shoulder of Joel Souza, the wounded film maker. It is assumed at this time it is the same projectile that killed Halyna Hutchins.
Approximately 500 rounds of ammunition have been removed from the set and placed in custody. The rounds are an unspecified mix of blank rounds, dummy rounds (rounds with a “bullet”, a cartridge case, a spent primer, and containing BBs or loose shot to create a rattle sound if shaken, to differentiate the round from a live round), and an undetermined number of suspected live rounds.
3 weapons were recovered, one from Mr.Baldwin, two from a weapons cart. The weapon recovered from Mr. Baldwin was a fully functional F.
Lee Pietta Long Colt .45 revolver. The other two weapons were a .45 revolver, altered to accept only blank ammunition and a plastic/rubber dummy weapon.
There have surfaced “Rumors” that some members of the crew had been engaged in “Plinking” (shooting at cans and bottles for fun) during off time earlier in the week and that the the weapon that fired the live round “may” have been involved in that activity. Investigation into the rumors is ongoing.
I won’t speculate at this time on exactly what went wrong and when and who might be at fault. What I will say, drawing on 50+ years of working as a gun
wrangler/armorer/weapons manager (all different names for the same job), mostly for live
stage productions but also for some film and broadcast work, is that MANY very obvious and blatant mistakes were made and it will be difficult if not impossible to narrow it down to any one action or person.
(If there’s a way, we should merge the two parallel threads following this incident.)