The deadly chain of events on set that led to Alec Baldwin being given a gun with live ammunition and unintentionally killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins has become more apparent after it emerged last night the actor fired a live round, believing it to be a blank.
The unfortunate accident came days after Alec Baldwin’s stunt double also fired off bullets on the production’s set on Saturday after being told the gun was ‘cold’, an expression used to signal to cast and crew the gun was not loaded with live or blank ammunition and was safe to fire for the scene.
New details of safety issues on set emerged as the production’s armourer was named by a search warrant issued on Friday as 24-year-old Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the daughter of legendary Hollywood armourer and firearms consultant Thell Reed, and revealed she was the leading firearms on a film set for only the second time.
Alec Baldwin inadvertently shot Hutchins when he aimed and fired towards a camera operated by the cinematographer, hitting her in the chest and director Joel Souza in the shoulder.
After firing the shot, Alec Baldwin was heard saying that in his years, he’d never been handed a hot gun.
Experts told a newspaper outlet that safety on set was normally very tight with live bullets never being used in filming and it remained unclear why a gun loaded with live ammunition was on the Rust set at all.
A warrant issued on Friday revealed the gun was set out by Gutierrez-Reed and handed to Alec Baldwin by assistant director Dave Halls, who told him it was cold.
A search warrant issued on Friday said that minutes before the accident, armourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed set out three prop guns on a cart outside the filming area.
A search warrant said that first assistant director Dave Halls picked up one of the firearms, a vintage-style Colt revolver unaware that it was loaded with live ammunition.
The warrant said that Dave Halls shouted out that it was a cold gun before handing it to Alec Baldwin, using the expression to indicate to cast and crew that the gun was safe to shoot for the scene.
Alec Baldwin, who was shooting a scene inside an Old West-style church, then shot a live round towards the camera, inadvertently killing Hutchins as she filmed him, also wounding director Joel Souza, who stood behind her.
Alec Baldwin must be feeling pretty bad for what has taken place, and must now be in shock because he now has to live with the reality that he’s killed, someone, even though he didn’t kill her intentionally, but whoever was in charge of the gun clearly didn’t do their gun checks correctly, although a gun is a gun and you really shouldn’t trust anyone but yourself because mistakes do happen, no one is infallible.
Someone was at fault here and it was probably the armourer because it was her responsibility to make sure that the gun was safe and loaded with the correct blanks. I mean, who in their right mind puts live ammo in a gun unless it was put there because it was intended to injure or kill someone? And it seems that people are pointing the finger at Alec Baldwin and saying that he’s at wrongdoing, but it’s the armourer’s responsibility to ensure everything’s safe.
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