Second update: John Bernecker, the Walking Dead stuntman who was seriously injured in an on-set accident, has died.
Bernecker sustained head injuries after falling 20 feet while rehearsing a fight, and TMZ says that he passed away on Thursday evening (July 13), after he was airlifted to Atlanta Medical Center and put on life support.
First update: The Walking Dead has temporarily shut down production on the show's eighth season after a stuntman was seriously injured in an accident on set.
"We are saddened to report that John Bernecker, a talented stuntman for The Walking Dead and numerous other television shows and films, suffered serious injuries from a tragic accident on set," AMC said in a statement.
"He was immediately transported to an Atlanta hospital and we have temporarily shut down production. We are keeping John and his family in our thoughts and prayers."
Original story: A stuntman working on The Walking Dead's eighth season has been seriously injured in an on-set accident.
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John Bernecker suffered serious head trauma when he plunged more than 20 feet onto a concrete floor while working on the AMC series on Wednesday (July 12), according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Emergency services rushed to the scene and Bernecker was taken to the nearby Atlanta Medical Center, where he is apparently being treated in the intensive care unit.
Neither Atlanta Medical Center or AMC are commenting on the stuntman's position at this time. However, a woman identified in the media as Bernecker's partner, Jennifer Cocker, shared a heartbreaking statement on Facebook.
She wrote: "John deserves to be seen by every neurosurgeon and doctor there is until one of them sees the life we all know he has in him and bring him back to us... THIS ISN'T FAIR."
Bernecker is an experienced stuntman who has worked on Logan, 24: Legacy, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows and Marvel's Black Panther over the course of his eight-year career.
This tragic turn of events occurred mere days after Walking Dead spin-off Fear the Walking Dead voiceover artist Randy Schell died in a skydiving accident in Houston, Texas.
Work on The Walking Dead's eighth season recently resumed in Georgia ahead of the show's 100th episode airing this autumn on AMC in the US and FOX in the UK.
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