Earlier prop-gun deaths: Brandon Lee, Jon-Erik Hexum 

In the two most high-profile earlier instances of a prop gun being involved in a death on a film or TV set, criminal charges were not filed in either case.

Brandon Lee, son of the late marital-arts legend Bruce Lee, was killed March 31, 1993, on the set of the supernatural thriller "The Crow." In a scene filmed around 12:30 a.m. on Soundstage 4 of Carolco Studios in Wilmington, North Carolina, actor Michael Massee, playing a thug, fired a .44-caliber handgun at Lee. The 28-year-old star collapsed and it quickly became evident he actually had been shot.

Bleeding from the right side of his abdomen, Lee was rushed to New Hanover Regional Medical Center, unresponsive but still showing vital signs at the ER. Following hours of surgery, he died at 1:04 p.m. without regaining consciousness. His surgeon, Dr. Warren W. McMurray, explained that a metallic object had lodged against Lee's spine, causing fatal injuries and blood loss.

Investigators determined that crew members, rather than buying hollowed-out dummy bullets for an earlier, separately shot close-up of the gun being fired, had made their own. The tip of one such dummy bullet had broken off and lodged in the gun. Sometime later when the gun was used to fire a blank — a wad of heavy paper or cotton — in Lee's scene, the fragment shot out with it, killing Lee.

New Hanover County District Attorney Jerry Spivey declined to file criminal charges against either the production company or any individual.

Lee's mother, Linda Lee Cadwell, said through an attorney the family was "not disappointed at all" in the decision not to prosecute. Cadwell the following month settled a negligence suit against the filmmakers, its terms undisclosed.

Likewise, no charges were filed in the Oct. 12, 1984, self-inflicted gun death of actor Jon-Erik Hexum, 26, on the set of his TV series "Cover Up." Witnesses said at the time that after putting blanks into the prop gun, he told crew members, "Let's see if I've got one for me," and then fired the weapon an inch from his right temple. At such close range, the heavy paper wad drove into the center of his brain, causing massive bleeding. 

Remaining in a coma, Hexum was declared brain dead at Beverly Hills Medical Center on Oct. 18.

Police concluded the shooting was accidental, and no criminal charges were filed. The actor's mother, Gretha Hexum, sued 20th Century-Fox Television and Glenn Larson Productions the following July. The parties reached an undisclosed settlement.