Don Cheadle Caught In Gang Shootout While Filming In South Central Los Angeles

Don Cheadle has played a criminal and starred in a movies about war, but none of it would prepare him for the real life shootout he endured this week.

Cheadle was in South Central Los Angeles filming scenes for his Showtime series House of Lies when a group gathered to watch. Some of the members of the crowed turned out to be members of opposing gangs, and before long they got into a scuffle.

It escalated quickly. Soon after the fight started, some of the warring gang members had pulled out guns and fired shots at each other through the crowded streets.

Filming was taking place at the notorious Nickerson Gardens, largest public housing development west of the Mississippi River. The complex has been a center for gang warfare in the past but is also a popular filming site for filmmakers.

The shooting took place just after Don Cheadle and co-star Kristen Bell had finished filming a scene,

After the shooting, bodyguards moved quickly to get the cast and crew out of danger, and Cheadle was reportedly not near the incident. Afterward, he took to Twitter to address rumors that he was caught up in the gunfire.

“Holy s***, I’m dead (TMZ),” he wrote.

Wary of the ever-present celebrity death rumors, Kristen Bell moved quickly to shoot down the reports.

“I’m sitting right next to him [Cheadle], he’s definitely not dead,” she wrote.

She then tweeted another picture showing herself next to Cheadle, and the message: “I am like 99% sure he’s not dead…wait a min… #zombiedon”

It’s good for Don Cheadle that he was able to escape the gun shootout unscathed, because he has a busy slate of work ahead. Cheadle just signed on to direct and star in the long-awaited Miles Davis biopic Kill the Trumpet Player. The movie will mark the directorial debut for Cheadle.