Grim details of shooting on Alec Baldwin’s Rust set revealed in warrant
- The actor was practising drawing the gun from its holster and aiming at the camera when it went off, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins
- Attention has focused on the assistant director and armourer after a report that crew members had used the same weapon for target practice before the incident
Actor Alec Baldwin was practising removing a revolver from its holster and aiming toward the camera during rehearsal for the movie Rust when director Joel Souza heard “what sounded like a whip and then a loud pop,” according to a search warrant obtained by the Los Angeles Times on Sunday night that also provided grim new details about the final minutes of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins’ life.
In the newly released document, Souza said someone identified the weapon as a “cold gun,” meaning it did not have any live rounds.
But instead the gun discharged, striking Hutchins in her chest and Souza in his right shoulder, according to a Santa Fe County, New Mexico, sheriff’s detective’s affidavit used to obtain a search warrant. Hutchins was pronounced dead at an Albuquerque hospital.
Assistant director Dave Halls, who handed Baldwin the loaded weapon, had been sacked from a previous production for gun safety violations, the company behind the as -yet-unreleased movie Freedom’s Path said on Monday.
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Baldwin shooting latest in string of fatal accidents on US film and television sets
Souza’s statement to the detective offered a new window into the on-set shooting Thursday that has left Hollywood reeling and calling for safer working conditions on sets.