process
Shot “Rust” director: “Incredibly loud bang”
A camerawoman dies while filming the western “Rust” and the director is also shot. Two and a half years later, the filmmaker testified in the ongoing trial against a weapons master.
Director Joel Souza spoke publicly for the first time in court about the fatal shot while filming the Western “Rust” with leading actor Alec Baldwin. He was standing right behind camerawoman Halyna Hutchins during a rehearsal when an “incredibly loud bang” was heard, Souza said on Friday on the witness stand in the ongoing criminal trial against weapons master Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who was accused of negligent homicide. The trial will take place in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
It felt like a baseball bat hit his shoulder, Souza said. He fell to the ground. Then he saw blood on the back of the camerawoman lying next to him. He simply couldn’t believe that they had both been hit by a bullet. While he was still in the hospital, he initially insisted that live ammunition was completely out of the question during a shoot, the filmmaker said.
Incident and charges
The 42-year-old camerawoman was fatally injured in the incident in October 2021 at Bonanza Creek Ranch. Souza was hit in the shoulder by the same bullet when the shot fired from a prop gun being operated by Baldwin.
Gutierrez-Reed, who loaded the gun, has been on trial since last week and could receive prison time if found guilty. A manslaughter trial against Baldwin is scheduled for July. A key question in the ongoing trial is how the live ammunition got onto the set. In addition to blank cartridges and so-called dummy cartridges, the investigators also found real cartridges. One of these was inserted into the revolver cylinder when loading.
The prosecution accuses the weapons master of disregarding safety precautions. Her defense attorney, in turn, blames the lead actor and producer Baldwin as well as other participants in the “Rust” production for a lack of safety on the set.