No Charges Filed in Actor's Death During Filming - NYTimes.com
No Charges Filed in Actor's Death During Filming
Published: September 6, 1993
WILMINGTON, N.C., Sept. 5— The District Attorney investigating the shooting death March 31 of the actor Brandon Lee here says he has decided against charging a movie production company with negligent homicide.
The announcement comes five months after Mr. Lee was shot at with a blank cartridge and killed by a bullet lodged in the barrel of the gun during the filming of "The Crow." The movie, in which Mr. Lee, 28, was starring, is about a rock musician who is killed by a street gang and then comes back to life with supernatural powers to avenge his death.
The production company has not made a decision about whether to finish the movie.
The District Attorney, Jerry Spivey, said last week that a police investigation had turned up no evidence of criminal wrongdoing. He had previously said he would not file charges against any individual involved in the filming but was reviewing state laws that hold corporations criminally liable in some circumstances. He said he had considered filing charges against Crowvision, the production company making the movie.
"There's a part of me that wants to file charges and have a trial," Mr. Spivey said. "But from a purely legal point of view, I would not feel comfortable, with the circumstances as I know them to be, charging Crowvision with negligent homicide." No Opposition From Family
While negligence was definitely a factor in Mr. Lee's death, Mr. Spivey said: "There is no evidence pointing to the kind of negligence the criminal law seeks to punish. The kind of negligence the law seeks to punish is the kind described as willful and wanton. You just can't find that."
A lawyer representing Mr. Lee's mother, Linda Lee Cadwell, said the family was "not disappointed at all" about Mr. Spivey's decision.
The lawyer, Bob Johnson, is representing Ms. Cadwell in a lawsuit against Crowvision and several people involved in the production. He said the family understood the difficulty of proving criminal negligence.
Mr. Lee, the son of the actor Bruce Lee, died about 12 hours after being taken to a local hospital when a bullet pierced his abdomen, damaging several organs and lodging in his spine. Prop Gun Wasn't Checked
The gun was supposed to fire a blank cartridge, but weeks before, the tip of a .44-caliber bullet had become lodged in its barrel in filming a close-up scene that used hollowed-out, or dummy, cartridges to make it look as if the gun held live ammunition.
Dummy cartridges are supposed to be rendered harmless by removing the gunpowder and triggering the firing pin. Professionally made dummies can be bought, but the ones used on the set of "The Crow" were made by crew members.
In the close-up shot, the triggering device in one dummy bullet apparently was improperly fired. The cartridge popped during filming and lodged the bullet in the tip of the gun barrel until it was dislodged when the blank was fired. The gun was not inspected between the filming of that scene and the scene shot on March 31.
Although the case is closed as far as Mr. Spivey is concerned, Crowvision could still face fines from the North Carolina Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The agency has not yet issued its report on the accident. Crowvision could be fined if the agency finds that the company violated workplace safety regulations.
Photo: No charges will be filed in the death of the actor Brandon Lee, officials in North Carolina said. (Reuters)