Alec Baldwin may still face criminal charges in ‘Rust’ shooting, as cops reveal gun in deadly set accident
SANTA FE, NM — Authorities on Wednesday refused to rule out whether Alec Baldwin could face criminal charges after he accidentally shot dead his cinematographer and injured the director on the New Mexico set of his film “Rust” last week.
Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza acknowledged during a press conference nearly a week after the shooting that there was “some complacency” in how weapons were handled on set — and that other “suspected” live rounds, which should never be on a film set, were uncovered amid the investigation.
Halyna Hutchins, 42, died and director Joel Souza, 48, was injured last Thursday at the Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe when Baldwin fired the FD Pietta Long Colt .45 revolver he had been handed while rehearsing a scene.
The sheriff said it was too early in the investigation to say if charges will be filed but if investigators determine a crime was committed, “an arrest or arrests will be made.”
“[Baldwin is] obviously the person that fired the weapon so we are going to continue interviewing and getting the facts of his statements and the evidence… he is an active part of this investigation,” Mendoza said.
When pressed on whether Baldwin could potentially face charges, Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said “no one has been ruled out at this point.”
“All options are on the table,” Carmack-Altwies said.
“We cannot answer that question yet until we complete a more thorough investigation.”
She added investigators could not yet say whether the shooting was caused by negligence, or by whom, but the three people who handled the gun – including Baldwin, armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed and assistant director David Halls – are all cooperating, Mendoza said.
Three guns and about 500 rounds of ammunition, including a “mix of blanks, dummy rounds and what we are suspecting [to be] live rounds” were found on the set in the aftermath of the shooting, according to the sheriff.
The three guns include the Italian-made Pietta that cops believe fired the fatal bullet, a plastic, non-functioning revolver and a Single Action Army .45 revolver that looks to be modified and “may not be functioning,” Mendoza said.
The evidence is currently being examined by the FBI’s crime lab in Quantico, Virginia.
Mendoza refused to speculate on how the live rounds wound up on set after the armorer told investigators “no live ammo is ever kept on set” and the director told police “there should never be live rounds whatsoever, near or around the scene.”
“We suspect that there were other live rounds, but that’s up to the testing. But right now, we’re going to determine how those got there, why they were there because they shouldn’t have been,” Mendoza said.
When asked how the armorer and assistant director both failed to realize there was a live round in the gun before it was handed to Baldwin, the sheriff said that’s a question they’re seeking to answer.
“We are going to try to determine exactly how that happened and if they should’ve known there was a live round in that firearm,” Mendoza said.
“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.”
In a search warrant affidavit released earlier Wednesday, it was revealed that Halls did not check the firearm properly before handing it over to Baldwin.
“I check the barrel for obstructions, most of the time there’s no live fire, [Hannah] opens the hatch and spins the drum, and I say cold gun on set,” Halls, the assistant director, told authorities of his typical process.
But on the day of the shooting, that protocol wasn’t followed, Halls said.
“David advised when Hannah showed him the firearm before continuing rehearsal, he could only remember seeing three rounds. He advised he should have checked all of them, but didn’t, and couldn’t recall if she spun the drum,” detectives wrote in the affidavit.
The sheriff revealed during his press conference that 16 people were in the room when the shooting occurred, about 90 people were on set in total and interviews with all crew members are still ongoing.
He added that the cameras were not rolling when the gun went off.
Mendoza said they plan to follow up on reports of unsafe practices on other sets the armorer and assistant director had previously worked on.
Additional reporting by Jackie Salo
