Person of Interest production shut down over fake shootout

Production on crime show Person Of Interest was halted on Wednesday (18Sep13) after New Yorkers mistook a gun-slinging scene for a real-life shooting. The cast and crew of the drama were on location in the Big Apple to film a sequence which involved the shooting of fake firearms.
Even though the pistols were not real, producers were required to have specialists from the New York Police Department on hand to oversee the scene – and landed in hot water with the law when they started their outside scenes early.
The New York mayor’s office revoked the show’s outdoor filming permit over the rule break after residents panicked and called cops to tell them that they had heard gunshots.
The production company behind the series blamed a “scheduling error” for starting before NYPD supervisors arrived on set.