Death on the film set
Prosecutor does not rule out criminal proceedings against Alec Baldwin
Alec Baldwin on the set of Rust where cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was accidentally shot
© Capital Pictures / Picture Alliance
Less than a week after the fatal shot on the film set of US star Alec Baldwin, the police made it clear: the gun contained live ammunition. The public prosecutor’s office does not rule out a later charge.
After the fatal shot at camerawoman Halyna Hutchins, the responsible prosecutor has not ruled out criminal proceedings against US actor Alec Baldwin. “All options are currently on the table,” said Mary Carmack-Altwies on Wednesday at a press conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico. A decision on a possible charge will only be made at a later point in time. This does not only concern Baldwin: “At this point in time we are not excluding anyone,” emphasized the prosecutor.
Sheriff comments on projectile
Hollywood star Baldwin apparently accidentally shot camerawoman Hutchins while filming the western “Rust” when he was firing a prop weapon during a rehearsal. The 42-year-old died in hospital shortly after the incident. Director Joel Souza was hit in the shoulder and injured. The responsible sheriff Adan Mendoza said on Wednesday that there was apparently a real bullet in the 45 caliber revolver. Accordingly, a lead projectile was found in Souza’s shoulder – presumably the same projectile that killed Hutchins.
“Cold Gun” handed over to Alec Baldwin
It is unclear how live ammunition got into the Colt. The police seized 500 bullets on the film set, a “mixture” of blank cartridges, dummy cartridges and probably also real bullets, as Sheriff Mendoza said. “We’ll find out how they (the real bullets) got there, why they were there, because they shouldn’t have been there.” Apparently there was a certain “carelessness” on the film set. The focus of the investigation is the film’s 24-year-old weapons master, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, and assistant director Dave Halls. He had given Baldwin the loaded gun with the information that it was a “cold gun” – a firearm that does not contain live ammunition and is therefore safe.
Guns were stored in the safe
Gutierrez-Reed told investigators that she stored the guns on set in a safe during the lunch break before the accident, but not the ammunition, according to an interrogation protocol. The 24-year-old also stated that real bullets were “never” kept on the film set. The industry website “The Wrap” had recently reported that members of the film crew had practiced target guns and live ammunition on cans just hours before the fatal incident. Halls told police Gutierrez-Reed showed him the gun before the rehearsal continued. “He could only remember seeing three bullets,” writes the investigator in the interrogation protocol presented to the court. “He said he should have checked them all, but didn’t, and couldn’t remember if she (Gutierrez-Reed) was turning the drum.”
Earlier firearms accident becomes known
Most recently, it became known that Halls had been fired from another production facility two years ago because of a gun accident. Halls was fired from the filming of the film “Freedom’s Path” in 2019, “after a crew member suffered a minor and temporary injury from an unexpectedly detonated gun,” a producer of the film told the AFP news agency.