Local News in Brief : Actor Who Shot Himself Improves
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Adam Smith Hancock, the 22-year-old acting student who shot himself in the mouth while performing a scene in front of classmates, was showing improvement Wednesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, a spokesman said.
Hancock’s condition was upgraded from critical to serious, and he is conscious with stable vital signs, hospital spokesman Ron Wise said.
Hancock, a student in a beginning acting class at the Beverly Hills Playhouse, shot himself through the neck with a semiautomatic .22-caliber pistol Monday while performing a scene from the film “Lethal Weapon,” in which actor Mel Gibson played a police officer distraught over the death of his wife.
Beverly Hills police have classified the shooting an accident. Sgt. Tom Edmonds said that the gun’s ammunition clip had been removed from the handle grip but that a live round remained in the chamber--apparently without Hancock’s knowledge.
The gun was not registered in Hancock’s name, and investigators believe that he borrowed it.
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