The gun that actor Alec Baldwin fired on set, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, was handed to him by an assistant director who told him it was ‘safe’, according to reports. The assistant director yelled "cold gun" before the shooting that killed Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza on the set of Rust in New Mexico on Friday.
The assistant director did not know live rounds were in the prop gun, the Santa Fe County sheriff's detective wrote in a court document. Baldwin's blood-stained outfit, ammunition and other prop weapons were taken from the set by police, the BBC reported.
Baldwin said that he was “heartbroken” and fully cooperating with the investigation. "My heart is broken for her husband, their son, and all who knew and loved Halyna," he wrote on Twitter. Hutchins was director of photography on the 2020 action film Archenemy, starring Joe Manganiello. A 2015 graduate of the American Film Institute, she was named a rising star by American Cinematographer in 2019.
According to reports, several members of the camera crew had walked out hours before the tragedy after protesting against unsafe working conditions on the set.
The movie is about a 13-year-old boy who is left to fend for himself and his younger brother following the death of their parents in 1880s Kansas. The teen goes on the run with his long-estranged grandfather (played by Baldwin) after the boy is sentenced to hang for the accidental killing of a local rancher.
-with PTI inputs
