March 30,1993--day 50 of the shoot started later than planned.The cast and crew had come to
work with only eight hours of break time from the previous day's shoot.
Proceedings should have started at 7:45pm,but it was 9:30 before the night's nine short
sequences were ready to shoot.The scene was a flashback-the one where Eric is murdered and
his girlfriend,Shelly beaten and raped.
Brandon was called onto the soundstage at a little past midnight.
Eric would enter the flat as T-Bird and Funboy were in the process of assaulting Shelly.
Carrying only a bag of groceries,Eric would open the door only for Funboy to pull out his pistol and shoot Eric.In reality,it was a simple scene to film in,which an explosive device was
hidden inside the grocery bag and then detonated to simulate the bullet from Funboy's gun.
The actors ran through rehearsal,then the crew was ready to shoot.The scene was played out
exactly as rehearsed.Funboy,T-Bird and Shelly,Eric walking through the door suprising the
assailants.Funboy pulling out his pistol and firing.
A defeaning bang echoed around the set as Brandon supposedly detonated the device hidden
inside his bag of groceries and then on cue,doubling over,staggering and finally tumbling to
the ground.Brandon lay still,his head wedged against the door,his feet in front of the camera's.
Only one of the technicians admit hearing a weak plea from Brandon...'cut,cut,somebody please say cut'...Things finally come to a halt-then and only then-did everyone realize that
something was wrong.
There was a hole in Brandon's abdomen,the size of a small coin.As one of the crew members
later recalled,"I'll never forget what it looked like-it was eye-shaped,about an inch bellow his
belly button on his right side."Brandon's heart reportedly stopped on the 30-minute drive to
New Hannover Medical Center.Surgeon Warrem McMurry tried to staunch the bleeding,but
after an epic,five-hour operation,there was little improvement in Brandon's condition.
McMurry stated,"There was so much blood loss.It wouldn't clot".McMurry told a small group
of the crew people who had followed the ambulance to the hospital that there was small
object lodged against Brandon's spine.It had severed one major artery and caused damage to
several major organs.An autopsy conducted on Brandon's body after it had been flown to
Jacksonville,revealed a .44 calibre bullet had indeed been found lodged against his spine.
On April 3,1993 Brandon's body was flown to Seattle where he is buried next to his father,in
Lake View Cemetary.
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