The assistant who handed the gun to Alec Baldwin acknowledges that he did not check the gun before filming

Dave Halls, the assistant director who handed Alec Baldwin the gun with which he accidentally killed Halyna Hutchins, has recognized that did not check the gun before rehearsing the scene because he was convinced it contained fake bullets.

The assistant’s statement, published this Wednesday by the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office (New Mexico, USA), would coincide with the hypothesis formulated by investigators after confiscate about 500 rounds of ammunition in the shooting area, among which they believe that there were real bullets mixed with fake projectiles.

Unlike blank cartridges, which recreate a weapon explosion, dummy bullets do not contain gunpowder and are only used when the script requires a projectile to appear onscreen. The scene Baldwin rehearsed was a close-up of his hand firing the pistol at the camera.

For her part, Hannah Gutierrez Reed, the production gunsmith, has declared to the authorities that that same day had made sure the gun contained dummy bullets and he has indicated that he was not aware of live ammunition in the recording studio.

However, his version contradicts what was recently expressed by the Sheriff of Santa Fe, Adan Mendoza, in a press conference, since among the objects confiscated by his team there are some 500 rounds of ammunition that he described as a mixture of “blank cartridges , fake bullets “and what you suspect might be “real bullets“.

At this point in the investigation, the Santa Fe authorities are considering all possible scenarios, including the imputation of any of those involved in the filming of the western ‘Rust’.

When asked by the press about the possible legal responsibility of Baldwin, who in addition to being the protagonist of the film is one of the producers, the sheriff stressed that “nothing is ruled out.” The only confirmation so far is that the pistol that Baldwin fired was a Colt 45 revolver that was stored with two other weapons, one modified so that it could not fire live ammunition and another one made of plastic.

As the official investigations progress, other details have been revealed, such as the assistant who handed the gun to Baldwin he was fired from another shoot in 2019 for a similar incident although, fortunately, he did not hurt anyone. The statements of team members who worked in the production portray a precarious work environment in which protests were piling up and for which half a dozen employees resigned on the same day of the tragic accident.