The action suddenly went from fiction to fact during the shooting a robbery scene in Crawfordsville, Indiana recently. The following may sound humorous, but the reality is that someone could have easily been shot. Also known as being sure of what is going on before you consider the use of deadly force.
It seems that a movie production company was shooting a scene at the Black Step Brewing Company at approximately 7 p.m. according to the official report from the Crawfordsville Police Department. As the scene was being shot, a concerned citizen who was unaware of what was going on saw what he thought to be an armed man wearing a ski mask walk into the bar. Being a good citizen, the person called 911 to report what he saw.
It gets better – when the police arrived, the first thing the responding officers saw was a masked man backing his way out of the bar with a gun in his hand. You can easily imagine their initial thoughts and what came next. The officers ordered the suspect to drop his weapon, but instead, he started turning towards them with his gun still in his hand.
Their first reaction was that their lives were in danger, so they immediately drew their weapons and opened fire on the “suspect.” Fortunately, for both the officers and the “suspect” were not injured as no one was hit. At this point, the suspect dropped the gun and removed his mask. At the same time, he informed the officers that they were only shooting a movie scene and that this was a movie set.
An Arrest was Made
Despite being told this, the actor, Jim Duff, was arrested by the officers until they were able to corroborate his story. Along with this Indiana State Police, investigators were called in to investigate the shooting, which is routine any time an officer is involved in a situation in which they have discharged their weapons.
The moral of the story is that no one should ever point a gun at a police officer. You should always do what the officer instructs you to do immediately. According to Sgt. Kim Riley a State Police spokesperson, “He was the only person who backed out, the only one that came out, and he was in a ski mask and holding a weapon. Whether it’s real or not, you don’t know at that time.”
The owner of the production company Montgomery County Movies said he was glad no one was hurt and that the rest of the cast and crew were all inside the bar, blissfully unaware of what was going on outside. The bottom line is that it was up to production company to notify local police and residents that they were shooting a movie.
This simple step could have prevented the entire situation and could even have saved a life. In hindsight, it is a shame there weren’t any cameras filming what was going on. Who knows, it could have led to the next big hit at the theaters.