Crew members who were on the set of FX’s “Justified: City Primeval” have spoken out after production was halted in Chicago when two cars engaged in a gunfight smashed through the show’s barricades.
One crew member, who wished to remain anonymous, was returning from a restroom break when they heard a popping in the distance. “I’m originally from a military town, so I know what gunshots sound like,” they said. As the sounds became louder and louder, they said, “Our first AD got on the walkie and told everyone, ‘Get down, take off your safety vests, those are gunshots.’”
Moments before the gun battle, the production was setting up to shoot a chase scene on the street. “I was working with the first team and actors making sure we were good to go,” the crew member said.
According to the member, the Chicago Police had closed either end of the street while production was shooting from midnight until 4 a.m. The incident happened around 1 a.m.
The crew member said, “They drove right past our U-Crane camera arm, and our crane operators were probably the closest to everything while these people were shooting at one another. The U-Crane had to drive and take a left to get away from them.”
The crew member also described how one PA, who was across the street near a bus stop, had “moved out of the way just in time because a bullet hit the glass of the bus stop and shattered the glass.”
Another crew member, who also wished to remain anonymous, initially heard pops coming across the park and assumed they were fireworks. “They started moving around the corridor of the park, and I heard them coming closer and closer,” they said. “They came straight down that road toward 130 people. I saw the cars blow past the cops and blow through on the street that we were setting up to shoot.”
The person added, “The U-Crane was on the road at the time, and they drove right past it.”
No one was injured during the Wednesday night incident. Crew members speaking with Variety said the main roads where production was shooting were barricaded off on either end, yet the cars broke through them.
This is the second incidence of gun violence that has affected a major production this week. Early Tuesday morning, a crew member for NBC’s “Law & Order: Organized Crime” was killed while reserving parking spaces for the production.
