“That’s not the assistant director’s job. “He’s not responsible for checking ” she said. In a November 1 interview with Fox News, Halls’s attorney, Lisa Torraco, suggested questions about the A.D.’s track record were misplaced, because firearm safety fell outside his purview. Rust’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, told detectives she also checked the weapons to make sure they contained no live ammunition.
MURDER PHOTO GUN SHOT MOVIE
On October 25, the Associated Press reported that Halls had been fired from the movie Freedom’s Path in 2019, after “a gun was unexpectedly discharged” and injured a crew member. In his affidavit, released on October 24, Souza said the gun went off during rehearsal of a scene where Baldwin, seated on a church pew, pulls his firearm from its holster and aims directly “towards the camera lens.” The director explained that he and Hutchins were checking the camera angle at the time, and assistant director Dave Halls told Baldwin he was using a “cold gun” just before the shot. Questions have surfaced as to how Baldwin wound up with a “hot” gun in the first place. And in 1984, actor Jon-Erik Hexum fractured his skull playing Russian roulette with a blank, dying days later. Production teams usually set strict rules around the use of prop firearms, but accidents happen nonetheless: Bruce Lee’s son, Brandon Bruce Lee, died while filming The Crow in 1993 after a bullet stuck in a prop gun’s barrel discharged along with a blank. But blanks can do damage, too - particularly when fired at closed range. The New York Times reports that investigators removed around 500 rounds from Rust’s set, but usually, production uses blanks to re-create the effect of firing a gun, sometimes with added powder to amp up the effect of the blast onscreen. Here’s everything we know about the shooting and its fallout.Īs a rule, live ammunition isn’t used on movie sets.Īlthough props departments typically use real guns on movie sets - models, cap guns, and nonfunctional firearms may also be options - as a rule, they do not use live ammunition. The Santa Fe County sheriff’s office had yet to receive the phone in August. That’s a lie,” he said, adding that he will “one thousand percent” comply once everything is sorted out between the states. “Any suggestion that I am not complying with the requests, or orders, or demands, or search warrants for my phone, that’s bullshit.
In an Instagram message explaining the delay, Baldwin stated that he wants to comply with the investigation, but “this is a process where one state makes a request of another state.” The actor is reportedly living in New York, where the Suffolk County sheriff’s office has to enact the warrant should it hold up in this other state. In December, the Santa Fe County sheriff’s office issued a search warrant for Baldwin’s phone, which the actor finally turned over on January 14. “We also believe that we have the spent shell casing from the bullet that was fired from the gun,” Mendoza reportedly added. The gun Baldwin was using turned out to have a “lead projectile” inside, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza explained: “We would consider it a live round, a bullet, live, because it did fire from the weapon and obviously caused the death of Ms. Affidavits released on October 27 may help answer that question: Dave Halls, an assistant director on the movie, told investigators that he failed to inspect every round in every chamber of every gun on set. “We’re trying to determine right now how and what type of projectile was used in the firearm,” spokesperson Juan Rios told the New York Times in the shooting’s aftermath. The Santa Fe County sheriff’s office is currently investigating the incident and has not yet charged anyone involved. Director Joel Souza sustained injuries as well and was hospitalized.Ĭivil suits have been filed among crew members, but criminal responsibility has yet to be determined. Hutchins was taken to the hospital by helicopter immediately following the shooting and was pronounced dead after her arrival. The victim, Halyna Hutchins, was a cinematographer on the movie, which was filming at Bonanza Creek Ranch, in Santa Fe County, New Mexico.
On October 21, a woman died on the set of the Western Rust after a prop gun Alec Baldwin was holding accidentally discharged in the course of rehearsing a scene.
A sign pointing toward Bonanza Creek Ranch, where cinematographer Halyna Hutchins reportedly died after Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun on set.