Rusty gun triggers fatal shooting
A Court record reveals the gun that actor Alec Baldwin fired on the set of the film Rust, killing woman, was handed to him by an assistant director who told him it was safe.
The unnamed director did not know that prop contained live ammunition and indicated it was unloaded by shouting “cold gun”.
Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins(42), was fatally shot in the chest in Thursday’s incident on the set at the Bonanza Creek Ranch near Santa Fe.
Director Joel Souza (48), who was standing behind her was also wounded and received emergency treatment for a shoulder injury and was later released from hospital.
Further details of the police investigation were released when a search warrant was filed at a court in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
The 63-year-old actor, Baldwin’s blood-stained outfit was taken as evidence along with the gun, and was questioned by law enforcement officers, but no one has been charged over the incident. Ammunition and other prop weapon were also taken from the set by police.
Baldwin, who was the star and producer of the film said on Friday, he was “fully co-operating with the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office.
“My heart is broken for her husband, their son, and all who knew and loved Hayna. There are no words to convey my shock and sadness regarding the tragic accident that took the life of Halyna Hutchins, a wife, mother and deeply admired colleague of ours”, he wrote on Twitter.
Ms. Hutchins, was from Ukraine, had studied journalism in Kyiv and film in Los Angeles and named a “rising star” by the American Cinematographer magazine in 2019. She grew up on a Soviet military base in the Arctic Circle.
She was the director of photography for the 2020 action film Archenemy directed by Adam Egypt Mortimer.
Half an hour before the incident, half a dozen members of the camera crew on Rust walked out after protesting over working conditions on the set.
A document showing which crew members were listed as scheduled to be on the set on that day names a head armourer, the crew member responsible for checking firearms, who is in her twenties and had recently served in that role for only the first time.
The prop gun that Baldwin fired contained a “live single round” according to an email sent by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees to its members according to Variety.
In Rust, Baldwin, who is best known for his role as Jack Donaghy on the NBC sitcom 30 Rock and for his portrayal of Donald Trump o the sketch show Saturday Night Live, was starring as an outlaw whose grandson is sentenced to hang for an accidental murder.
With Hollywood filmmakers striking for reality-like film scenes, accidents with guns is inevitable.
Often real fire arms used in filming, are loaded with blanks – cartridges that create a flash and a bang without discharging a projectile.