Alec Baldwin 'in tears' after firing prop gun on movie set that killed crew member, injured director
By Dom Calicchio | Fox News
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Actor Alec Baldwin was seen "in tears" by two members of the press in New Mexico following a shooting on the set of the movie "Rust" that left the film’s cinematographer dead and its director wounded, according to a report.
Baldwin, 63, had reportedly fired what was described as a "prop firearm" at the Bonanza Creek Ranch, fatally wounding cinematographer Halnya Hutchins, 42, and wounding director Joel Souza, 48, the Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper reported.
Two of the newspaper’s staffers – a reporter and a photographer – said they saw Baldwin "in tears" after the incident, which the newspaper reported had not yet been declared an "accident" by the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office.
Baldwin was questioned by investigators following the incident, sources told the newspaper. But no charges were filed in connection with the case, which remained under investigation, Juan Rios, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office, said in a statement, according to the New Mexican.
Hutchins died at the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque after being flown there, while Souza was being treated at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center in Santa Fe, the newspaper reported.
Deputies were at the scene working to determine how the incident happened and what type of projectile was used in the firearm, the New Mexican reported.
Souza had worked with Baldwin at least once previously, on the 2019 film "Crown Vic," on which Souza was a director and Baldwin was a producer.
Some initial reports said Souza was critically wounded in Thursday's shooting, but early Friday "Rust" co-star Frances Fisher tweeted that Souza had been released from the hospital. She also disputed some published reporting about the incident.
Alec Baldwin was given prop gun by crew member who had a previous safety complaint against him
By Tyler McCarthy | Fox News
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The "Rust" crew member who reportedly gave Alec Baldwin a prop gun that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was previously the subject of a safety complaint.
Crew member Maggie Goll said in a statement to The Associated Press that she filed an internal complaint with the executive producers of Hulu’s "Into the Dark" series in 2019 over concerns about assistant director Dave Halls' behavior on set. Goll said in an email Sunday that Halls disregarded safety protocols for weapons and pyrotechnics and tried to continue filming after a crew member had "slipped into a diabetic fugue state."
"He did not maintain a safe working environment," Goll told NBC News. "Sets were almost always allowed to become increasingly claustrophobic, no established fire lanes, exits blocked ... safety meetings were nonexistent."
Baldwin fired a prop gun on the New Mexico set of the film "Rust" Thursday, killing 42-year-old Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza, who was standing behind her. Souza has since been released from a hospital. It was previously reported that Halls handed Baldwin the firearm, mistakenly announcing at the time that it was a "cold gun," meaning that it was an unloaded weapon. Instead, it was loaded with live rounds, according to the records.
The gun Baldwin used was one of three that a firearms specialist, or armorer, had set on a cart outside the building where a scene was being rehearsed, according to court records. Halls grabbed a gun off a cart and handed it to Baldwin, according to the records.
Baldwin, 63, who is known for his roles in "30 Rock" and "The Hunt for Red October" and his impression of former President Donald Trump on "Saturday Night Live," broke his silence on the shooting on Friday, one day after the incident.
"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," Baldwin said on Twitter.
"I'm fully cooperating with the police investigation to address how this tragedy occurred and I am in touch with her husband, offering my support to him and his family. My heart is broken for her husband, their son, and all who knew and loved Halyna," the actor concluded.
Baldwin, who is a producer on "Rust," met with Hutchins' husband and 9-year-old son Saturday at a hotel in Santa Fe where the actor had been staying during filming. Baldwin and Hutchins' husband can be seen embracing in an emotional meeting.
Goll, a prop maker and licensed pyrotechnician, said in her email that Halls' behavior on set has concerned her in the past.
During work on "Into the Dark," Halls didn't hold safety meetings and consistently failed to announce the presence of a firearm on set to the crew, as is protocol, Goll said. The assistant prop master admonished Halls several times for dismissing the actors and actresses before they had returned weapons to the props table, she said.
"The only reason the crew was made aware of a weapon’s presence was because the assistant prop master demanded Dave acknowledge and announce the situation each day," she wrote.
She filed an internal complaint with the executive producers of Blumhouse Productions, she said.
"To my knowledge nothing was done after my complaints," she wrote.
A spokesman for Blumhouse Productions told NBC News, "We used non-firing, dummy firearm props during the production of "Pure." No complaints were received via the studio’s anonymous reporting system EthicsPoint/Navex regarding safety concerns."
"We cannot comment on personnel matters," the Blumhouse spokesperson added regarding allegations against Halls.
Fox News' attempts to reach Halls were not successful.
"I am gutted at not pushing harder for greater accountability and safety," Goll said. "Many of us have messaged each other wondering the same thing: Is there something we could have done then that would have prevented the tragedy? It is a horrible feeling."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Alec Baldwin was practicing pointing revolver at camera during fatal prop gun mishap
By Gabrielle Fonrouge and Kenneth Garger - New York Post
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SANTA FE, N.M. — Alec Baldwin was practicing a “cross draw” in a church pew that required pointing his weapon at the camera during the prop gun mishap that left cinematographer Halyna Hutchins dead, newly released documents reveal.
Two new witness accounts made public by the Sante Fe Sheriff’s Office on Sunday night describe the harrowing moment the 42-year-old director of photography was shot inside the church building on the New Mexico set of the film “Rust.”
Baldwin was rehearsing the gun retrieval method from a pew of the mock church at Bonanza Creek Ranch when he aimed at the camera, while both Hutchins and 48-year-old director Joel Souza stood behind it.
Souza then says he heard a “loud pop” and realized both he and Hutchins were bleeding, according to a police interview.
The director told investigators that he remembered hearing the phrase “cold gun” while preparing for the scene, indicating the firearm wasn’t loaded and was safe for use, but he couldn’t remember if the gun, described as a “revolver” in the records, had been checked after the crew returned from a lunch break before the incident happened.
Another witness, cameraman Reid Russel, gave additional insight into the moments leading up to the horrific tragedy.
“[Russel] said while preparing, there was a shadow coming from the outside light and they had to move the camera at a different angle from Alec,” the warrant says.
“He said Alec was trying to explain how he was going to draw out the firearm and where his arm would be at when the firearm was pulled from the holster,” according to the warrant.
“[Russel] was not sure why the firearm was discharged and just remembered the loud bang from the firearm,” the document states.
Souza, who was looking over Hutchins’ shoulder when the Thursday tragedy unfolded, was struck in the shoulder and Hutchins in the chest.
“[Russel] said after the firearm was discharged, he remembered [Souza] having blood on his person, and [Hutchins] speaking and saying she couldn’t feel her legs,” the record says.
“[Russel] stated once [Hutchins] was on the ground, medics began to treat her injury as she was bleeding while on the floor of the building they were in.”
Souza told authorities that Hutchins stumbled backward while complaining of pain before she was helped to the ground. Hutchins was airlifted to the hospital, but could not be saved. Souza has since been released from the hospital.
The fatal mishap happened during a tense day on set following numerous issues between the crew and the production team overseeing the film.
Russel told police that filming was behind schedule that day and he “had much work to complete” after six members of the camera crew walked off the set in the morning following “issues with production involving payment and housing,” the document states.
He added the crew who had walked off, who were reportedly replaced with non-union workers and threatened with “security” if they didn’t immediately leave, had previously penned a “letter to production on disagreements.”
Souza had also mentioned production was behind schedule, largely because there was only one camera available to use after the crew walked off.
“During the morning hours, the day started off late due to a camera crew that had quit and they had to find another camera crew to help film the movie,” Souza told police.
“[Souza] said once they hired another camera crew to assist, the day was taking longer than usual because they only had one camera to do the filming.”
Filmmakers have traditionally used real guns on movie sets but load them with blanks instead of real bullets to avoid a similar mishap.
Production on the film has been halted amid an investigation on the shooting, and an “absolutely devastated” Baldwin is reportedly taking time off from his other projects.
No arrests have been made. The Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office said Sunday night the incident “remains an active, open investigation” and a press conference on the matter will be held on Wednesday.
Alec Baldwin insists he’s not to blame for fatal shooting of Halyna Hutchins on ‘Rust’ set
By Patrick Reilly - New York Post
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Alec Baldwin said he’s not to blame for the death of a cinematographer he shot with a prop gun on the “Rust” movie set because there never should have been live rounds on the property.
Baldwin was handling the gun when a live shot rang out, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding the film’s director Joel Souza on Oct. 21 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
“There’s only one question that needs to be resolved, just one: where did the live round come from?” Baldwin told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in an interview that aired Thursday.
“Someone put a live bullet in a gun. A live bullet that wasn’t even supposed to be on the property,” he said in the interview, his first since the fatal accident. “Someone is responsible for what happened, and I can’t say who that is, but I know it’s not me.”
Baldwin was visibly emotional and broke down at times during the one-hour interview as he discussed the shooting, which the actor called the worst thing to ever happen to him.
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Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was fatally shot on the movie set of “Rust” in October.
Baldwin told Stephanopoulos that he decided to come forward and speak publicly about the incident because he couldn’t wait what could be months until the investigation concluded to clear up what he called “misconceptions” surrounding the incident and its aftermath.
He described the moments leading up to shooting as he and Hutchins worked on capturing the best gun angle for a scene in which he claimed he never was meant to pull the trigger — only to cock the gun back. The actor said he was assured the gun was a “cold gun” by assistant director Dave Halls, who handed him the weapon.
As Baldwin and Hutchins practiced different motions and angles for the shot, the gun fired, although he said he never even pulled the trigger.
“I let go of the hammer. Bang! The gun goes off,” Baldwin said, not believing he could have possibly have shot her.
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“I thought to myself, ‘Did she faint?’ The notion that there was a live round in that gun did not dawn on me for probably 45 minutes to an hour later,” Baldwin told Stephanopoulos.
“No one could understand. Did she have a heart attack? The idea that someone put a live bullet in the gun was not even in reality.”
“She just laid there kind of in shock,” he said, before responders arrived.
The shooting occurred on the same day that several crew members walked off the set for purportedly unsafe and subpar working conditions and made demands such as better hotel rooms.
“In my opinion no … I did not observe any safety or security issues,” Baldwin said of his time on set.
His interview comes after a new search warrant approved by a judge on Tuesday revealed the live round may have been left in the gun from a previous film production.
Baldwin said he had never before worked with Hutchins until “Rust” but was impressed with how dedicated and driven she had been.
“She was someone who was loved by everyone she worked with, was liked by everyone she worked with and admired,” he said, choking back tears.
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Armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who was working on just her second film, was in charge of training actors in gun safety and handling the weapons. Her attorney has claimed that there is a possibility that the bullet was intentionally placed in the chamber to sabotage the film, which Baldwin denied, as have investigators.
“That’s a big swing,” the actor said. “That’s an enormous charge to make. For what purpose? To attack who? To harm me? The production?”
“It’s overwhelmingly likely that it was an accident.”
The incident has left Baldwin shook, saying he’s exhausted after losing so much sleep over the past several weeks.
“I’m not somebody who has very vivid dreams but I dream about this constantly now,” he said.
Baldwin told Stephanopoulos that the most important thing in his life right now is his family, and not his career. He is slated to film another movie in January although he said he “can’t imagine I’d ever do another movie with a gun in it ever again,” he said.
Baldwin claims he isn’t worried about potential criminal action against him — as the actor who fired the gun and as a “purely creative” producer on the film. He said his only production responsibilities centered around the script and casting. To date, no charges have been brought in the film set shooting.
“It’s highly unlikely I would be charged with anything criminally,” he said he’s been told.
Two civil lawsuits filed by crew members Serge Svetnoy and Mamie Mitchell have claimed Baldwin bears responsibility for the unsafe working conditions on set. The suits also name other producers, Halls and Gutierrez-Reed as defendants.
After Hutchins was killed, Baldwin took her husband Matthew and their young son out to dinner before they attended a memorial service for her, he said.
“I said, ‘I don’t know what to say, I don’t know how to convey how sorry I am to you,” Baldwin said.
Alec Baldwin deletes Twitter account following tell-all interview about fatal 'Rust' shooting
By Tyler McCarthy | Fox News
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Alec Baldwin has deleted one of his two Twitter accounts following his tell-all interview with George Stephanopoulos about the shooting incident that took place on the set of the movie "Rust."
The actor had two verified Twitter accounts, one of which he was much more active on and was the one he used to previously issue statements about the fatal shooting incident that took place on the set of the indie-western movie in October. However, following his interview last week, it seems the star has completely deleted the account labeled @AlecBaldwin. However, his account @AlecBaldwln____ remains live with the latest tweet being from October 19. Prior to that, it was only active in June.
It’s unclear why the actor chose this time to delete the account. Representatives for Baldwin did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment.
However, the timing coincides with the debut of his interview with Stephanopoulos, which was his first formal interview since the on-set tragedy that resulted in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza.
Among the many revealing moments from the interview was the assertion from the 63-year-old actor that he did not pull the trigger that resulted in the gun firing. Instead, he claims that he was rehearsing the scene with Hutchins and that it required him to pull the hammer back on the firearm.
"I let go of the hammer of the gun," Baldwin described. "And the gun goes off."
Baldwin said he didn't know what had happened until he was in the police station, hours later. A police officer told Baldwin that a .45 caliber slug came out of Souza's shoulder at the conclusion of his interview, he said. The police also confirmed Hutchins' death to Baldwin at the end of the interview.
Other noteworthy moments included Baldwin saying that he does not believe he’ll be charged with any crimes as a result of the incident. However, he is currently among those involved in civil litigation over the death of Hutchins.
Fox News’ Jessica Napoli and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Walls close in on Alec Baldwin as his gun lie falls apart
By Maureen Callahan - New York Post Opinion
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Alec Baldwin has always insisted, despite all evidence to the contrary, that he didn’t pull that trigger.
The FBI now says that he did. That finding, released over the weekend, comes just after the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office announced they’re only waiting on Baldwin’s phone records before sending their investigative file to the DA’s office.
Are the walls closing in yet, Alec?
This FBI report is reason to cheer. Not since OJ Simpson have we seen someone so guilty act so aggrieved, entitled, put-upon and victimized, as if this whole tragedy has affected no one more than Baldwin himself — not Halyna Hutchins’s husband, not her little boy, so traumatized after her death he couldn’t speak for days, but Alec freaking Baldwin.
Think that’s overstatement? Let me count the ways: Gallivanting through the Hamptons and Vermont, just days after the shooting, Baldwin shopping at Ralph Lauren and preening before the paps — you know, the ones he otherwise hates and physically attacks — so they could get the perfect shot of Baldwin, inside a gleaming restaurant, holding his head in his hands. The bizarre roadside presser with his fake Spanish wife, the Rachel Dolezal of the Hamptons, in which he claimed the “Rust” set was run by “a very, very well-oiled crew” who just had the bad luck to suffer this “one in a trillion” tragedy.
The barrage of social media posts in the days after, Hilaria and Alec gloating over their family — that is, when Hilaria wasn’t getting in on the victim act herself, writing that “parenting through this has been an intense experience, to say the least.”
Know what else will be an intense experience? Criminal charges, jail time, and the loss of all his money in civil litigation. (On Monday, the New Mexico medical investigator ruled the shooting an accident; the district attorney has yet to decide whether or not to file charges.)
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Did I mention that the Baldwins thought there was no better time to buy a sprawling, historic Vermont farmhouse for $1.75 million?
That’s how delusional these two are. How surely they believe Alec to be above the law or any consequence.
As two firearms experts in on-set safety told me last year: Guns don’t shoot themselves. Alec Baldwin, for all his crocodile tears and caterwauling, pulled that trigger and killed Halyna Hutchins.
“I’m not aware of any gun firing itself,” veteran Hollywood firearms expert Steve Wolf told me last December, after Alec’s poor-me softball sit-down with ABC’s George Stephanopolous — his good pal from the Hamptons social scene, not that either disclosed that little conflict of interest.
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“The trigger still must have been pressed,” Wolf said. “It’s really important to discredit anyone who claims that guns fire themselves. If this becomes an acceptable defense, there goes any accountability when it comes to shooting people. We can’t have this kind of ‘guns shoot themselves’ thing. They don’t.”
Former FBI agent turned Hollywood firearms consultant Bobby Chacon told me the same thing.
“The bullet striking and killing that woman came out of the barrel of the gun pointed directly at her,” Chacon said. “Bullets don’t curve. He isn’t in ‘The Matrix.’ The trigger would still have to be pulled.”
Alec, to Stephanopolous: “I would never point a gun at anyone and pull the trigger at them. Never.” Also, he was brazen enough to say he felt no guilt.
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This was the same interview in which Baldwin claimed Hutchins told him to point the gun at her. “Everything is at her direction,” he said. “I’m holding the gun where she told me to hold it, which ended up right below her armpit.”
So which is it, Alec? You’d never point a gun at anyone, or you pointed the gun at Hutchins because she told you to? And if it’s the latter, what are we to infer — that Hutchins is to blame for you pulling the trigger and shooting her to death?
It’s all so vile, but take heart: As a producer on “Rust,” Baldwin may also share blame for the rookie mistakes and cost-cutting that led up to this tragedy. Don’t forget that on the morning Hutchins was killed, seven crew members walked off the set over safety concerns.
At least one had sounded the alarm to the unit production manager, at one point texting, “We’ve now had three accidental discharges. This is super unsafe.
”It’s easy to see how such standard safety protocols went ignored and how dire warnings were shrugged off. As the old saying goes, the fish rots from the head, and Baldwin, as we’ve all seen over the past year, lives in a reality of his own making: His wife, née Hillary Thomas from Boston, is, through sheer force of make-believe and some bronzer, Spanish. His great friend Woody Allen is just misunderstood.
And, of course, it’s totally proper to brag about your happy family life incessantly on Instagram while ignoring your part in destroying another young family.
In Baldwin’s demented worldview, anyone who thinks he’s responsible for the death of a beautiful young wife and mother, her whole life and career ahead of her, must be motivated by animus or greed. Even the widower.
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“What you have is a certain group of people, litigants and whatever” — ! — “on whatever side, who, their attitude is, ‘Well, the people who likely seem negligent have no money, and the people who have money are not negligent.’ ”
This was Baldwin in March, weeks after Hutchins’ widower filed his civil suit against Baldwin and went on the Today show, calmly expressing his justifiable anger over Baldwin’s interview with Stephanopolous.
“Hearing him blame Halyna in the interview and shift responsibility to others and seeing him cry about it — I just feel, are we really supposed to feel bad about you, Mr. Baldwin?”
Hutchins went on to state the obvious, which again continues to elude Baldwin — Baldwin, who likes to pride himself on being smarter than the average Hollywood duck, what with his one-time NPR show and his bestselling memoir and his coverage in The New Yorker and telling the New York Times that he was qualified to be governor of New York. Oh, and his liberal bona fides with his “SNL” spoofs of Donald Trump, a man he has more in common with than he could ever admit.
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Lest there remain any doubt as to who Alec Baldwin really is, consider these text messages between Baldwin and Matt Hutchins — who Baldwin was so quick to befriend in the hours after the shooting.
Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2021, after Hutchins reaches out to Baldwin:
AB: I am with my kids.
!!!!!!!
AB: Your attorney told me not to contact you. So . . . what’s up?
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What’s up? That says it all. That’s Baldwin saying: Why are you bothering me, what could you possibly have to say, can’t we just do this through lawyers, what are you, sad or something?
AB: Make sure you tell your lawyer that you reached out to me and not vice versa.
MH: Of course. You can always text me if you have something on your mind.
AB: Your lawyer sent a variant of a cease and desist to me. Told me not to contact you. So, there’s that.
How callous. How heartless — especially for someone who has spent the past ten months begging for sympathy and understanding.
Karma isn’t a big enough concept to describe what Alec Baldwin has coming. Fortunately for decent people everywhere, sloppy emotional ploys and disgusting attempts to blame the victim do not apply to the criminal justice system, the FBI, or the laws of physics.
So, you know, there’s that.