Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - FRIDAY NIGHT SPECIAL: MOVIE SUPERSTAR ALEC BALDWIN CRASH - BLAMES MYSTERY DUMP TRUCK

Episode Date: October 25, 2025

Actor Alec Baldwin driving with his brother Stephen crash into a tree.  Baldwin posted on Instagram that a "big garbage truck the size of a whale" cut him off.  He says to avoid a collision, he crashed his wife's car into a "big, fat tree," crushing his wife's car.  There were no injuries.  Video from the truck company shows a different story. It puts Baldwin in the headlines again after two people were shot on the set of his movie "Rust." Director of photography Halyna Hutchins died, and director Joel Souza was wounded. Reports say first assistant director David Halls picked up one of three prop guns set up by armorer Hannah Gutierrez and yelled, “cold gun.” "Cold gun" is industry slang meaning the gun does not contain live rounds. Halls gave the gun to Baldwin, who used it to rehearse a scene. According to the search warrant, Baldwin aimed the weapon at the camera when he fired, striking Hutchins and Souza. Joining Nancy Grace today: Paul Szych – Former Police Commander; Author: “StopHimFromKillingThem” on Amazon Kindle; Twitter: @WorkplaceThreat;  Screen Actors Guild-Eligible Actor Domenic Romano – NY Corporate Lawyer and Entertainment Attorney, Romano Law Dr. Shari Schwartz – Forensic Psychologist (Specializing in Capital Mitigation and Victim Advocacy); Author: “Criminal Behavior” and “Where Law and Psychology Intersect: Issues in Legal Psychology;” X: @TrialDoc” Karen L. Smith – Forensic Expert, Lecturer at the University of Florida, Host of ‘Shattered Souls’ Podcast; Twitter: @KarensForensic Dr. Michelle DuPre – Former Forensic Pathologist, Medical Examiner and Detective: Lexington County Sheriff’s Department, Author: “Homicide Investigation Field Guide” & “Investigating Child Abuse Field Guide;” Forensic Consultant Alexis Tereszcuk - CrimeOnline.com Investigative Reporter, Writer/Fact Checker, Lead Stories, X: @swimmie2009  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Friday Night Special. That's right. It's Friday night and it's special. Does the name Alec Baldwin ring a bell? Well, he's back. In the last days, Alec Baldwin has a mystery car crash.

And, of course, find someone else to blame. What is the truth behind movie superstar Alec Baldwin's, quote, Whale, car crash? I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. I want to thank you for being with us. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories.

I want to thank you for being with us. Hampton's police state, Alec Baldwin, insist he was not to blame for ramming his range rover into a fixed object, a tree. New footage now emerging seemingly contradicts Baldwin's version of what happened in the crash. Now, Baldwin claims he slammed his wife's SUV into a tree. He says it happens after a, I guess this is a trash truck, a National Waste Services truck cut him off and sent him careening to the side of the road. Now, new footage obtained shot from inside the truck, the trash truck or dump truck, shows it exiting

unimpeded. Okay. According to this footage, we understand Baldwin's car then emerges to the right of the vehicle and shoots off the road and smashes into a tree. Huh. Alec Baldwin's Range Rover seemingly shows up in the shot of that, I guess, dash cam they've got.

well after the truck completes the turn out onto the street the quote disputed maneuver so based on that video it seems that the dump truck had nothing to do with Baldwin's SUV slamming into a tree

I'd like to report nobody's hurt and Baldwin did not make a complete ass of himself this time for once Now, there are reports there was no sign at all the truck forced Baldwin out of his lane, and there was no obstruction on the road that required Baldwin to swerve off the road. The significance of this is that he seemingly is blaming either his SUV or the dump truck, just like he blamed the self-firing. gun on the set of the Rust movie, where he, according to ballistics experts, pull the trigger

and shot Helena Hutchins dead. Now, have I ever believed he did it on purpose? No, I don't think that. I think it was reckless and negligent that he fired a gun pointed directly at someone. Yes, he likely... You know, I'll go out on a little. You know, I'll go out on a him, he clearly thought it was full of blanks. But he still pulled the trigger, fired the gun, and it killed Helena Hutchins. He, Baldwin claims the gun went off by itself. Okay, that's not true. He lied.

That said, this is what we know of the facts of Helena Hutchins' shooting death. Tragedy on the film set of a new Alec Baldwin movie and what police are calling a misfire of a prop gun in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The sheriff's office there has just confirmed it was Baldwin who fired the prop gun that killed a 42-year-old female director of photography, Helena Hutchins. The film's director, Joel Sousa, was also hurt. This incident happened on the set of the Western Rust. Now detectives are investigating what type of projectile discharge from this gun. You were just hearing our friend Christine Johnson with CBS. What really happened?

According to reports, the assistant yelled out cold gun just before the shooting, which means the gun was safe, that it was loaded with a blank. So how do we have a woman dead, another film person injured with me, an all-star panel to make sense of it all? If we can, with me, Dominic Romano, lawyer, joining us out of New York at Romano Law.com is specialty entertainment law, and I can tell you, somebody's going to need a lawyer. Dr. Sherry Schwartz, forensic psychologist, joining us. Karen L. Smith, Forensic Expert, host of Shattered Souls Podcast at barebonesphorinsic.com. Paul Zike, joining us special guest, former police commander, an author of Stop Him from Killing Them on Amazon.

And he has lots of experience using firearms with blanks during live action movie scenes like Terminator Salvation. Dr. Michelle Dupree, forensic pathologist, former medical examiner, author of Homicide Investigation Field Guide and a former police detective. But first to Alexis Tereschuk, crimeonline.com investigative reporter joining us from Hollywood. but Alexis, what is getting folded into the story right or wrong is Alec Baldwin's history, his reputation for, let me just say, hot-headedness, to put it euphemistically, if he thought it was a blank and it should have been a blank, then history aside, it was an accident. But how can it really be an accident when somebody loaded this prop gun with real bullets? You know what?

Just started at the beginning. They were on a set in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It's a western-style movie. So they were sitting in a church, an old church scene. And Alex Baldwin was sitting in one of the pews. And he was practicing what's called a cross-drop. And so that would be where the person take your left hand and grabs the gun out of the holster on the opposite hip. pulled it across to fire.

He was practicing this move. Standing the cinematographer, which is the person that makes the movie beautiful. This is the person that films the scene. She was standing in front of him with the assistant director standing right behind her. He was looking over her shoulder to see what it would look like when Alex pulled the gun out. He pulled it out of the side, points it at her to show them, pulls the trigger, and it fires a live round into her, hits her in the stomach, and actually, I believe, goes through her and grazes the director standing right behind her.

Hush has pronounced dead at an Albuquerque hospital after being rushed to the emergency room. You know what? I always love playing 911 calls for a jury because it takes you back to what's really happening. Not a description, not someone recounting what happened, but you're hearing what really happened. Take a listen to the beginning of that 911 call. When you did that 911, what's the location of your emergency? We need an ambulance, appellate, banana creek, right now. We got two people shot on a movie set accidentally.

He said someone was shot? Two people accidentally with gunshots at on movie set, banana creek ramp. Okay. And anyone ended it. I'll connect you with medical dispatch. Don't need us. Who are you calling?

Clear the road. We're going to be firing the MS. Let's a little station of emergency. No, the NASA Cree Clarend. Has people accidentally shot on a movie set by a top gun. We need out immediately. The Nancy Clarend, come on the phone with me. We're going to get some help, okay?

Okay. Okay. What is your name? Mary Mitchell. Ms. Mitchell wants the phone. Where are you calling from? Five up. Don't hang up, okay?

Don't hang up, okay? Hold on just one second. Sounds like somebody else is calling for two and a little. You better make it just everybody should be. We need some help us, director and our cameraman. This is a camera woman who's been shot. Now, you hear repeatedly the word accident, accidentally throughout that. But is it an accident?

very often when you have, for instance, a DUI crash, people go, well, it was an accident, but was it? Because the driver chooses to go to a bar to order drinks, to drink, to become legally intoxicated, to then get the car keys, walk to the car, get in the car, crank up, reverse, and drive out onto the roads. That sounds pretty deliberate. So is it an accident? Is it gross negligence? Well, take a listen to more of that 911 call. So was it loaded with a real bullet or why?

Do you do that? I cannot tell you that. Okay. We have two injuries from the movie gun shot. Okay. We're getting them out there already just down the phone with me. Okay. It's a G that yelled at me at lunch because of asking about revision.

You can't really? I'll go and yell at me. He's like the chest of guns. She's responsible for how many? No, no, no. I'm a script supervisor. How many people are injured? Who?

That I know of. I was sitting. We were rehearsing and it went off and I ran out. We all ran out. They were butt doubled over the AD and the camera woman and the director. We're clearing the road to come back. We're back in the town. We're back in the western town.

If you call them, we're back in the western town. Is there any way? Is there any serious bleeding? I don't know. I ran out of the building. But I'm not fine. I still have to go through these, okay? Are they completely alert?

We don't know. I don't know. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. Here's a thing. Just tell the truth. I thought there were blanks in the gun. I fired it. I shot her. It was an accident. I'm sorry. That would have been the truth. Or the road was wet. I swerved off the side of it and I crashed the darn SUV into the tree. Nobody was hurt. Nobody's getting sued. That would be the truth. Why blame the gun and lie? Why blame? What did he say?

He blamed a, quote, whale car. Okay, whale car crash. Why blame the driver of a dump truck? Just, you know, own up to it, man. Nobody's hurt. Nobody's dead. Nobody's dismembered. Just, why lie?

which leads me back to the shooting of Helena Hutchins. Paul Zyke, thank you for being with us. What went wrong? Obviously, there was a live bullet and what should have been a prop gun, but what happened? Nancy, the only explanation for this is a systemic breakdown in systems that are in place to ensure that live ammunition is not present on the set. Okay, now that was a lot of words, Paul Zyke. I think you're saying somebody didn't do their job. Well, absolutely.

Somebody did not do their job and catastrophically did not do that. There's no reason whatsoever for live ammunition to be on the set of any set because these weapons are capable of firing live rounds. They're not really prop guns. They're deadly weapons being used as props. Okay, hold on right there. I want to make that distinction. You're absolutely right. Look, I'm a trial lawyer.

I'm a legal expert. you're the expert in this world when I say prop gun I mean they're using it as a prop but you're making a very fine subtle but important distinction a prop gun

is a fake gun I don't think it even can shoot is that right exactly you're talking about say a prop knife correct it has a flat edge on it it's incapable of cutting you these are things that are not deemed to be dangerous a prop gun is simply, as

utilized on set, are weapons that are capable of firing live ammunition and therefore accidentally live ammunition could be mixed with blank rounds. Given time, this is just a disaster waiting to happen. They need to move to true

guns that are incapable of chambering live ammunition. Until that happens, this has a very strong chance of repeating itself. Well, okay, tell me this, Paul Zey. Guys, with me, Paul he is a former police commander. He's an author, screen actors gill, and has experience using blanks during live action movie scenes where we all think they're shooting real guns

if you suspend your disbelief in movies like his Terminator Salvation. Those aren't real guns. So why are they using a real gun to start with Paul Zyke? And I mean, to me, having been forced to handle so many guns and so many homicide, what moron wouldn't make sure that there were blanks in the gun? It's hard to imagine that during the loading of the weapon, that that was not viewed very strictly as a weapon is loaded. And also there's a chain of custody issue here. On the scene of Terminator Salvation,

as we would go out and we would conduct a battle scene, if you will, in the middle of the night, we would be handed directly from the armor, fully automatic weapons and magazines, fully loaded with blanks, and we would head straight out to where the scene was to be shot, and then we would engage in the scene, you know, five, ten minutes later, hand the weapons straight back to the armor, all the ammunition back to the armor, all the magazines back to the armor,

and we would not be able to touch those weapons again until the next scene. So from a chain of custody standpoint, it went directly from the armor, directly to my hand, my, you know, the co-actor's hands that were with me, and that was maintained very strictly. Hold on, Paul. I've got to soak in everything you're saying, because Dominic Romano, a high-profile lawyer joining us out of New York's specialty entertainment law, and that's why Dominic's joining us today. Dominic, hold on, when you heard Paul Zyx's a chain of custody, I immediately thought of a serial murderer that I prosecuted on one murder. We could get him on one. And there ended up

I would say three weeks before trial, I was just looking at the evidence and I noticed that the bag that contained the evidence wasn't signed. It had never been signed by the homicide cop that picked it up from, it was DNA in there, it was blood, from where it had been taken and carried to the crime lab. It wasn't written on the back. Did anybody tamper with it? No, he just didn't put his initials. I'm like, oh, dear Lord in heaven, the chain is broken. This could be attacked at trial. I had to go back out to the jail, stand there and look at this killer while he pulled his blood again. Then I carried it with my investigator, myself, back to the crime lab to have it retested. Praise the Lord in heaven. It was his DNA. Long story short, that's chain

of custody. Your case can be lost. You can lose a serial killer because somebody didn't keep the chain to preserve the integrity of the trial. That's what I thought when Paul Zyke said, chain of custody. But did you also hear him say, Dominic Romano, he handed it back to the, it sounded like he was saying armor or armory, but I've been reading about this case. It's an armorer, armorer, who is the person in charge of all the weapons. I think Paul is absolutely right. Look, no one should ever be killed by a gun on a film set, period. Those are the words of Brandon Lee's sister. Brandon Lee shot on a film. set in the early 1990s.

This should not happen. There are established protocols, chains of command. I mean, there appears to be some serious gross negligence on that set to allow that to have that. That is the appearance. And I don't know what evidence can come out to rebut that presumption. A live round in, well, as Paul Zyke has corrected me, it's not a prop gun. They were using real guns.

Hey, let me ask you a question, Paul Zyke. Explain the difference in what a blank looks like as opposed to a live round, a bullet. When we're saying live rounds, we're talking about a bullet. What's the difference? Can't you just look at them and you can see the difference? In most cases, absolutely, it's very clear you can see the difference. In some types of calibers, say 2, 23, if you will, that's what an AR-15 would shoot. The blanks are kind of crimped at the end to almost look like there's a bull.

bullet on the end of them, but any sort of trained professional whatsoever. When you're handling a blank, you know it's a blank. When it's a bullet, you know it's a bullet. The blank does not have a lead projectile or a steel projectile at the end of the round. So at the end, it's either flat or it's slightly crimped to hold in the gunpowder, which the firearm usually needs the gunpowder to correctly function the weapon and cycle the weapon. And it's one of the reasons why blanks are used. Okay. Paul Zike, I really respect you, but you're going to have to dummy down for me,

okay, because I would have to put you through intensive training before you took the stand, because a lot of people do not know what you just said. Just think about it, and think if there's a way you can say it in more simple terms. What's the difference between a blank and a lie bullet?

When you look at it, speak English, man. In the meantime, wait a minute, you mentioned Brandon Lee, and you're absolutely right. We pulled sound of other cases almost identical to this. This is not the first time it's happened, believe it or not. Tyler, could you roll our cut 44? Let's follow up on what Paul Zyke said about Brandon Lee. Here's a bullet comes from that killed Brandon Lee. Some believe a piece of a crop bullet without gun pattern. It may have been left accidentally in the gun. The blank was

fired at Brandon. Some feel it shot out the prop bullet, mortally wounding him. The movie was an accident waiting to happen. The crow crew member we spoke with. says that there were many opportunities for an accident to happen. Are the working conditions on the set of the crow particularly bad? Truly long hours, 18-hour days, back-to-back at times, pushing 90 to 100 hours a week and six-day weeks is way too much. Do you think that that overwork, that exhaustion might have resulted in this accident? Safety precautions, all of them were definitely not followed.

It could have been prevented with better management. for the movie The Crow denies that the working conditions were unsafe. Certainly everyone was very tired and exhausted from the shoe. These are professionals, and they're used to working conditions like this. Okay, guys, you were hearing our friends at Inside Edition, and I want to follow up on what we're just hearing with Alexis Tereschuk. I played that sound for a reason, Alexis, because on the Alec Baldwin set of Rust,

there apparently were problems with working conditions. A group of the crew had walked out, I think, the night before, claiming that they had bad hotels. They were an hour away from a hotel or motel, and if they worked late into the night, they'd have to drive through, I guess, the desert, and a lot of them were actually sleeping in their cars overnight. That's just some of the complaints I've heard. But what are the other complaints, if any, on the Alec Baldwin movie set? Well, there have been complaints that things were not safe. quote. But one of the person that is being directly blamed for a lot of the unsafe is when you were listening to the 911 calling, you said you heard the woman saying

that he was yelling at me, things like that. This is the assistant director that they're talking about. And this is the assistant director, David Halls, who handed the gun to Baldwin and said, this is a cold gun. So what people on the set were saying is that Halls was not a responsible person. He was very angry. He was making the job very difficult for everybody to do and they didn't trust him. Wait a minute. You're saying David Halls was an assistant director? Yes. Okay, well, what about the honorer? Isn't she

the one responsible for all the weapons and the blanks or the bullets? Guys, take another listen to our cut, 43. This is about practically the same thing happening before. Listen. It was here at the Carroll Coe Studios in Wilmington,

North Carolina that actor Brandon Lee was filming The Crow. Ironically, the film is about a man who dies and comes back to life to avenge his death. Shortly after midnight last Tuesday, Brandon Lee was preparing to film a routine action scene. The script called for him to get shot at as he walked through a door carrying a bag of groceries. Michael Massey, the actor doing the shooting, is reportedly devastated by Lee's death

and remains in seclusion. The gun he was using was supposed to be loaded with blanks. When the cameras rolled, Brandon Lee was performing for the last time. The first episodes of a reality show starring Alec Baldwin, his wife, and their seven children are hitting the airwaves. Now, according to a string of PR specialist, no one could imagine any advisor would have recommended the Baldwin's agree to a reality series. In the very best of times, let alone after the shooting death of cinematographer Helena Hutchins. Way in Karen Smith. Well, we deal a lot with forensics and physics when we do a reconstruction.

We use snippets of time, and sometimes that can be split seconds. And this includes trajectories of projectiles. And this trajectory can generally be explained by the reporting. Alex Baldwin was reported to be sitting at a church pew to align a camera angle when the gun was fired. Alina Hutchins then collapsed on the floor, and Joel Sousa was struck in the clavicle. That's an upward trajectory, which means both Hutchins and Sousa were standing. up when the event occurred, the projectile that perforated Helena's body and subsequently struck Joel. Now, in order for that to happen, the kinetic energy, which is energy as the result of

motion, would be very high. We're dealing with math or the amount of matter in an object and energy dispersion. Guns carry a high volume of energy in a small space, and that for my experience it tells me that it was something other than just the paper or plastic wadding from a blank ground, that needs to be confirmed by the ME and the investigators, but there are reports of live ammunition bullets being on the set, and that particular gun allegedly being used for target practice that morning. There's a lot of questions that needs to be answered by the investigators and the ME. A gun, a gun for the set being used as target practice, Paul Zike. That shouldn't be that you've got crew members out shooting bottles. I think that that's coming out.

with live bullets and use that same gun for a scene and a church full of people? And Nancy, I just want to clarify the prior point. So very simply, a blank is a shell casing with gunpowder in it with no bullet. A bullet is the same exact thing with more gunpowder and a live bullet at the end of it that is made to travel through the barrel and exit the weapon. But back to what you were saying, that's a cardinal rule that's been broken. Whether you're involved in police training or you're involved in a movie set, keeping live ammunition away from weapons that fire live ammunition

and keeping weapons that fire blanks away from those instances. And when you mix those two together, the odds of somebody having a spare live round in one of their pockets or you name it is super high. And that sounds very sloppy and it just opens the door. for terrible things that happen, and that's where the systemic breakdown in that controlled environment. I'm telling you, Paul Zyke, you're right.

Super sloppy is one way to put it, gross negligence or unintentional murder is another way to put it. I think I hear Dominic Romano jumping in. Go ahead. Basically, it's a catastrophic miscalculation. I think two people here should be focused on. One is the armor, right? This is only, according to reporters, second movie.

the chairs read and the assistant director dave hall's you mentioned before according to reports he was fired from a 2019 production of freedom's past okay that's not good members suffered a minor injury whoa wait wait wait you got me drinking from the fire hydrant which is not a bad thing it's too much at once hold on why in the world would you have somebody that was fired off another similar job handling your weapon okay is that what you just said dominic okay almost so almost the armor is 24 years old, the person handling the weapons, it's only her second film. She was just in a

podcast last month where she said she was a bit nervous about her film but it went well. Her father is apparently a famous armor. So we have that, an experienced armor. Number two, we have the assistant director known as the AD, Dave Hulse. Apparently according to a report, he was fired

from the 2019 production. The movie was Freedom Pass. After crew member suffered, guess what? A minor injury when a gun unexpectedly discharged. Dominic Romano, the words similar transactions are jumping to mind.

I mean, this solidifies my thought that this is not an accident because an accident's when you totally don't see it coming. It's just like out of the blue. But if this guy, if it's correct, the AD had a previous incident where somebody

was shot on a set. Even if it was a minor injury, then you should have seen either knew or should have known. Would you agree with that, Dominant Romano? There are going to be some serious questions to be asked, and there have to be answers. And if we don't have good answers, someone is either going to be involved in a very expensive lawsuit

or depending on what they knew and when they knew it and how careless they were, probably facing some time. The other issue you alluded to earlier is, cost cutting. It's rampant in the industry right now. And the production company's decision not to book the crew hotel rooms near the actual set, but to have them travel an hour in each direction to get to and from their accommodation, to have long hours where people walked off the set earlier that day in protest. So this is a combination, what turned out to be, a lethal combination, a catastrophic calculation on the part of the production government.

Well, you just said a mouthful all in a good way between the armorer being an experience, the AD having a prior similar transaction and budget cuts, problems amongst the crew. Take a listen to our cut six from our friends at News Nation now. Let's start with the people responsible for handling a gun. There are no ubiquitous rules across all film sets, but generally there are some guidelines that they follow. adherent to a budget. Budget usually plays a big role. On many sets, there are no fewer than three people responsible for monitoring a weapon. A prop master, who's in charge of all props, is often supported by a safety officer and a stunt coordinator. And depending on the state,

you may also need to bring in an armorer whose only job is handling weapons. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. In the last days, Hampton detectives find no criminality in Alec Baldwin's car crash, striking a fixed object. But it couldn't just stop there. Baldwin had to blame the driver of a dump truck. For him, Baldwin, veering off the road and hitting a tree. Baldwin, who killed a cinematographer Helena Hutchins on the set of a Western movie, says he, quote, felt bad for crashing his wife's car. Okay, but just keep telling the truth. You don't have to lie about it.

And for once, Baldwin was not throwing some sort of a tantrum. He actually managed to keep his pie holes shut. What happened the day of the crash and the Hamptons? We may never know. According to footage obtained from inside the dump truck, the dump truck or trash truck had nothing to do with Baldwin veering off the side of the road. Okay? No harm, no foul, nobody's hurt. The significance of this is that he came up with a lie, seemingly, just like the

The lie, according to many, he told on the set of rust about the death of a young mom. Dr. Dupree, I'm sure you, like myself, have had to handle weapons in front of juries. And I learned this from watching a pro, try cases. I would always pick the gun up, holding it face down with a barrel pointing to the ground. so the jury or anyone else would not be alarmed. What you don't want to do is scare your jury. I would walk in front of the jury holding the weapon, nose down, open the chamber, let them see me check it, hold it up like I was examining it.

You know, at my eye level. So they can see that it was empty and then shut it and then give it to the witness. Without fail, even if it was a weapon, that I knew was inoperable. That was S-O-P. Why would that not occur on a movie set, but describe how you're supposed to handle weapons? Exactly, Nancy.

You described it perfectly. That is exactly what you should do. And if you're giving a weapon to someone else, normally you have the chamber open so that they can also see. And then you both check it and know that it's empty or that the blanks are in it. Tell me what you can discern about what Karen Smith, forensic expert, just told us about the injuries. What happened?

Nancy, even though these are, quote, prop guns or blanks, they can still obviously do devastating damage. The wadding or whatever they are filled with, even in a blank. But this was not a blank. This was an actual projectile. And as we know, you mean a bullet? Speak English, please. A bullet. Yes.

Yes, this is a bullet. and the caliber of that bullet of the gun is what is going to determine how much damage is done. As she explained, the higher the caliber, the more energy in that bullet. And so the more damage done to the physical body. And, of course, the location where that bullet enters the body, in this case, was devastating. You know, another issue to Dr. Sherry Schwartz, I've been on a lot of TV sets, obviously, and movie sets for, you know, cameos or some legal issue. And I

got to tell you, Dr. Sherry Swartz, a movie set takes on a whole it's like you're in a different world. Like when you go to the movies and you sit down and it goes dark, your mind takes you there. When you're on a movie set, I've never been on a single

movie set that went on time. You go till one or two o'clock in the morning. It's pitch dark outside. You keep going until you get the shot or you finished a scene or whatever it's called in movie world. I think that there is a suspended fear. You think you're at a movie set.

Like when you go to Disneyland or when you're on vacation on a cruise ship, you suspend your normal thinking. It doesn't seem real. And you're not thinking, wow, there's a gun. I could get shot because it's, quote, just a movie. It's not real. How do we, let me just say. They suspend our disbelief.

Suspend rational rules of functioning. When you're on a movie set or in a movie, you know, like in movies where there's some nut with a gun and you hear a sound but you don't think it's real because you're in a movie. What happens in the human mind, Dr. Sherry? Well, when you don't think that something is actually real, then you would not calculate accurately

what the potential risks are, right? And so there is this gun on the set, but everybody thinks, oh, it's just make-believe. We're setting this up to film it. Nobody's actually going to get hurt. And so what happens mentally is that you underestimate what the potential risks are. And what happened here is an egregious underestimation. So for the rest of us, it's make-believe. Maybe even for the actor, they know that they're just playing a role.

And everybody around them might know they're playing a role. but there are people on the set who are responsible for that gun and for taking that proper care and knowing what the potential risks are. Back to you, Alexis Terrestrial at crimeonline.com investigative reporter. You have heard Dominic Romano, Paul's like, well, everyone on the panel weighing in, but apparently there were a lot of problems and a lot of disgruntled crew members. I understand that one of the motels they had set them up to stay overnight was at a place for the homeless and there were drug addicts there.

They were afraid to stay there. What was going on on the set? Well, it seems like what they were trying to do was make this film as cheaply as possible, understandable. But they were putting people's lives at risk. These hotels were 50 miles away. So after working 14-hour days, the crew was having to drive over an hour to get to their hotel. Then they would have to be back within like six hours, so they would get all. almost no sleep at all.

But they were also saying that things were just not safe. There had been an incident a few days earlier that one of the prop guns, again, prop gun, real gun, had been accidentally fired. And so the crew had been complaining to the producers saying, this is not a safe working environment. And they walked off the set. And so Hollywood is very much a union business, but the producers hired non-union people to replace them.

These non-union people, though, are not the people. It's not the armor and it's not the assistant director. And everybody's been talking, there is a line of protocol. You have so many steps in the line of defense

so that when this gun got to Alex Baldwin, at least two other people were responsible for saying that it wasn't loaded. I mean, didn't somebody even scream out cold gun?

I mean, they have to yell it out. You know what? You were just saying, I know so many times, for different shoots, I don't know who he is. It carries that comes over, and they have to do it a certain way. They have to say a certain thing, and they say it really loudly. I don't know why, but I'm sure there's a reason for it, just like they would yell out cold gun,

and everybody would hear it. But I guess they yelled it out without checking, Alexis. And there are reports that, yes, so there were three guns that were set up, and they were put on a table outside the church set. And this is because of COVID-19 protocols. So not a lot of people are in the, if it's an enclosed set, they're not there. Three guns. So the assistant director picked it up. Dave Halls, as the other guest said, you know, has a history of a lot of accidents on sets and handed it to Baldwin. And he is the one that yelled out cold gun. There's no, nobody has said there, so many people have spoken to the police on the set. So many of the

other crew members. And they said they didn't know whether it actually was empty or not. And these guns were used at lunch. This is a post-lunch break. So they broke for lunch at 1230. They come back after lunch. During that lunchtime, there are reports that the crew members were using this gun and other guns to shoot beer bottles out in the desert area and using it as target practice. So there could have been alive. And there said there was lots of live ammunition. Nobody was told they couldn't bring live ammunition on set. That's another thing that... Why do you need a live round on set?

That's a big problem here. Is that Paul jump in? Yeah, I'd like to jump in there. It's simply a breakdown of the security of the scene. The only people there that are armed should be security personnel. And, you know, in my years, my decade of fighting to keep workplaces safe and to stop stalking offenders from killing victims, I can tell you one thing, and that is nobody thinks the unthinkable is going to happen.

It's a matter of just human thinking. They think that, well, that happened to somebody else that didn't happen to me. And because this is somewhat of a rare occurrence on a set, people got laxed. They got lackadaisical about fundamental when it comes to shooting a scene such as this. And just like at any workplace, this is a workplace out in the middle of the desert, just like it would be in an office building, those protocols broke down and people at work attempting to do the right thing for the right reasons had a catastrophic devastating thing happened because we as human beings think, well, if it hasn't happened, it won't happen.

And that's just not the reality of life when it comes to dangerous events. I mean, just like he said, the gun went off on its own when he shot Helena Hutchins dead. now he slams into a tree and he blames a mystery dump truck. Hmm, video reveals otherwise. Nancy Grace signing on. Goodbye, friend.