US killing of cinematographer wasn’t one person’s fault, says prop maker

As US police continue to investigate the case, when actor Alec Baldwin accidentally killed a film’s cinematographer during its making, prop maker evaluated that the accident was not the fault of one person, but revealed that she had complained about the film’s assistant director previously, British news portal The Guardian reports.
In an interview, Maggie Goll, a prop maker and licensed pyrotechnician, said that she had raised safety concerns in the past about the assistant director whom authorities say unwittingly handed actor Alec Baldwin the prop gun that killed a cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on a film set in the US stat of New Mexico last week.
Read also: US cinema accident results in death cinematographer
Goll filed an internal complaint with the executive producers of Into the Dark TV series in 2019 over concerns about assistant director Dave Halls’ conduct on set. The prom maker alleged in an interview that Halls had previously not followed safety protocols for weapons and pyrotechnics when she worked alongside him on a TV series in 2019.
Halls has not responded to requests for comment. Baldwin fired a prop gun on the Rust film set on Thursday, October 21, killing 42-year-old Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza, who was standing behind her.
The fatal shooting of the cinematographer on the set of the western Rust last week, and some of Goll’s previous experiences, point to larger safety issues that need to be addressed, Goll said. «This situation is not about Dave Halls … It’s in no way one person’s fault. (..) It’s a bigger conversation about safety on set and what we are trying to achieve with that culture.»