Alec Bladwin says that, minutes before pulling the trigger, he was told it was safe to use a loaded prop gun, that he fired and killed a cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, a warrant application from the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office said.
When Assistant Director Dave Halls gave Baldwin the gun on the set of “Rust,” a Western movie filming in New Mexico on Thursday, he didn’t know the forearm had live rounds inside, announcing it was a “cold gun,” investigators said. The film’s armorer Hannah Gutierrez had placed three guns on a cart outside of a wooden structure where one of the scene was being shot, out of those three guns, Alec picked one.
Halls grabbed the gun from the cart and brought it inside to Baldwin to use for the scene, detectives said.
The warrant was issued in Santa Fe court so that investigators could document the shooting scene at the Santa Fe ranch.
According to the warrant, law enforcement seized the weapon, as well as other prop guns and ammunition that the crew had been using during filming. The bloody costume worn by Baldwin was also seized.
Halyna Hutchins, a 42-year-old cinematographer, was fatally shot in the chest. The 48-year-old director Joel Souza, who was standing behind her, was injured.
In the case of the shooting, no charges have been filed. According to NBC News, First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said Friday that the case is still in the preliminary stages of investigation.
The script supervisor for the movie, Mamie Mitchell, told The Associated Press that she was standing next to Hutchins when she was shot.
“I ran out and called 911 and said ‘Bring everybody, send everybody,’” Mitchell told The Associated Press. “This woman is gone at the beginning of her career. She was an extraordinary, rare, very rare woman.”
