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 New details about the incident
emerged on Wednesday during a news conference by
Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza and
District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies and in an
affidavit filed by the sheriff's department.
Mendoza told reporters there was a complacent
attitude toward safety on the set before last
Thursday's shooting that killed cinematographer
Halyna Hutchins during a rehearsal.
Hannah Gutierrez, the crew member in charge of
weapons on the set, told investigators she had
checked guns there but found no "hot rounds" -
apparently meaning live ammunition - before the
shooting, according to the affidavit.
Dave Halls, the film's assistant director,
handed the gun to Baldwin, telling the actor it
was "cold" or safe.
"He advised he should have checked all of them,
but didn't," Halls told police, according to the
affidavit. Halls was referring to the barrels of
the revolver.
Halls had been fired from a previous movie set
in 2019 over a mishap with a gun, production
company Rocket Soul said on Monday. He has made
no public comment on the incident.
Mendoza and Carmack-Altwies said while no
criminal charges have been filed, they are not
ruling out that possibility.
"All options are on the table. ... No one has
been ruled out at this point," Carmack-Altwies
said of potential charges.
Legal experts have said that criminal charges
are possible but not likely against Baldwin.
The shooting https://www.reuters.com/world/us/prop-guns-spark-debate-after-cinematographers-death-set-2021-10-22
has sent shockwaves through Hollywood, prompting
a debate about safety protocols in film and
television - including whether certain types of
guns https://www.reuters.com/world/us/prop-guns-spark-debate-after-cinematographers-death-set-2021-10-22
used as props should be banned - and working
conditions on low-budget productions.
Gutierrez, whose job is formally called the film
crew's armorer, said ammunition was not secured
on the set during a lunch break before the
shooting, the affidavit showed. It quoted her as
saying that firearms were secured inside a safe
during the break and that no live ammunition is
ever kept on a movie set.
"Only a few people" had access to the safe and
knew the combination to open it, Gutierrez said,
according to the affidavit.
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 Authorities have collected
three firearms, 500 rounds of ammunition - some
believed to be live bullets - and several pieces
of clothing, Mendoza said. Some of the ballistic
evidence is being sent to an FBI crime lab for
analysis, Mendoza added.
Authorities have the firearm used in the
shooting and recovered the bullet from the
shoulder of director Joel Souza, who was wounded
but released from the hospital, Mendoza said. It
appears the same bullet struck Souza and
Hutchins, Mendoza added.
Mendoza said the gun used by Baldwin was an
Italian-made Pietta Long Colt revolver.
"We would consider it a live round - a bullet,
live - because it did fire from the weapon and
obviously caused the death of Ms. Hutchins and
injured Mr. Souza," Mendoza said.
Baldwin, 63, serves as a co-producer of "Rust,"
a Western film set in 1880s Kansas. Production
on the Bonanza Creek Ranch, near Santa Fe, has
been halted.
Mendoza said Baldwin, Halls and Gutierrez all
are cooperating with the investigation.
Asked about the use of real weapons on a movie
set, the sheriff said, "I think the industry has
had a record recently of being safe. I think
there was some complacency on this set. And I
think there are some safety issues that need to
be addressed by the industry and possibly by the
state of New Mexico."
Before the incident, camera operators had walked
off the set to protest working conditions.
Baldwin was drawing a revolver https://www.reuters.com/world/us/alec-baldwin-seen-consoling-family-slain-cinematographer-set-problems-mount-2021-10-24
across his body and pointing it at a camera
while rehearsing when the weapon fired,
according to court documents. There is no video
footage of the incident, Mendoza said.
The film's producers have hired the law firm
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-film-rust-shooting-lawfirm-idUSKBN2HH24S
Jenner & Block to investigate the shooting. They
said the lawyers "will have full discretion
about who to interview and any conclusions they
draw."
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Additional
reporting by Brendan O'Brien, David Thomas,
Doina Chiacu and Jill Serjeant; Editing by Will
Dunham & Shri Navaratnam)
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