Baltimore police have concluded that a report of gun threats and extortion on the Baltimore set of Apple TV+’s “Lady in the Lake,” are “inaccurate,” according to a police report released on Tuesday.
“This was determined to be inaccurate and the victim’s recollection of the incident changed during the investigation,” the police report said.
A crew member on the series, who initially claimed he was threatened with a gun by two locals demanding $50,000 for permission to film in the area, has retracted his statement.
On Monday, Endeavor Content spokesperson Sharon Liggins said that the limited series, which stars Natalie Portman, would continue on schedule, but in a different location, with increased security measures. She did not respond to TheWrap’s request for comment on Tuesday.
The story, as Endeavor conveyed it, was that two men had confronted a driver on the production crew and “brandished a gun directed at our driver, and then they fled the location.”
The whole incident seems like a game of telephone, with the witness admitting to police that claims of a $50,000 payoff weren’t true, and that he hadn’t actually seen the gun himself. “Once questioned what the gun looked like [the witness] then retracted his original statement of seeing the gun and advised that he did not see a gun but that one of the drivers [had] seen the gun,” the police report obtained by TheWrap read.
Another detail that was magnified in the retelling came from a woman who was identified as the supervisor for the film crew’s security team. She had at first told officers that a group of people demanded $4,000 from the film crew, later changing the amount to $50,000. Upon further questioning, she said she had no direct knowledge of who made the threat.
Police said there was a run-in of sorts, but it didn’t involve a gun or money. A street vendor selling clothes near the set who was “upset that he had not been compensated by the production for lost business, since he could not operate his clothing business while the crew was filming at that location.”
Police on site arrested the vendor on Monday on drug-related offenses. He told police he was was waiting on paperwork to receive compensation for lost business on Friday.
Despite the threats being deemed “inaccurate,” police said detectives will continue to interview others connected to the incident and that the case remains open.
“Lady in the Lake” is based on the novel of the same name by local author Laura Lippman, which is set in 1966. Portman stars alongside Moses Ingram of “The Queen’s Gambit.”
Filming began in April and is expected to continue until October.
