The pistol, which should have been loaded with a blank cartridge, instead had a loaded cartridge, according to the affidavit presented by authorities.
The police investigation into the deadly shooting with a prop pistol fired by Alec Baldwin during a shoot on Saturday focused on the specialist in charge of the weapon and the assistant director who handed it to the American actor.
Ukrainian-born cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, 42, was hit in the chest and died shortly after the incident in New Mexico Thursday, while director Joel Souza, 48, who was behind her, he was injured, hospitalized and released.
Police questioned Baldwin, who voluntarily cooperated, but has not pressed charges against him.
The pistol, which was supposed to be loaded with a blank cartridge, instead had a loaded cartridge, according to the affidavit filed by the sheriff’s office to obtain a search warrant, local media reported.
The affidavit claims that Assistant Principal Dave Halls, identified as the man who handed the gun to Baldwin, yelled “cold weapon” as he did so. It is the language of the industry to indicate that a weapon has only one bullet.
Police are focusing on the exact sequence of events that brought live ammunition onto the set of “Rust,” the “western” set in the 19th century.
On the phone call to the 911 emergency number immediately after the shooting, you could hear the shock and anger felt on set.
“We have two people who were accidentally shot with a prop pistol; we need help right away, ”says the person calling a police officer.
“Was it loaded with a real bullet?” Asks the operator. “No … I can’t tell you,” responds the caller. “This son of a bitch is supposed to check guns, he’s responsible for what happens on set.”
Baldwin said on Friday that he was heartbroken and was fully cooperating with the investigation into “how this tragedy happened.”
He retweeted a story from Variety magazine titled “Alec Baldwin Was Told The Prop Gun Was Safe Before The Fatal Shooting, According To An Affidavit.”
The pistol used, and two others, were provided by the film’s weapons master, Hannah Gutiérrez-Reed, 24, the daughter of Thell Reed, a longtime film industry gunsmith.
In a September podcast, the young Gutierrez-Reed said she had some trepidation about taking on the role of head gunsmith for the first time in the previous movie she worked on, “The Old Way.”
“I was very nervous at first and almost didn’t take the job because I wasn’t sure I was ready,” she said on the “Voices of the West” podcast, before adding, “But doing it, everything went very well.” (I)
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