Warrant: Cameraman said Baldwin was careful with firearms

Oct. 25—The Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office has not yet disclosed what type of projectile was discharged from a revolver fired by actor Alec Baldwin on the set of the Western film Rust — or who might have been responsible for the firearm mishap that killed renowned cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

The agency has not yet filed any charges in Hutchins' death last week, though it plans to hold a joint news conference Wednesday with the District Attorney's Office to discuss its investigation into the shooting, a tragedy that has shocked, saddened and outraged film workers in New Mexico and across the nation.

Court documents the sheriff's office filed Friday describe a series of actions by workers on the Rust set Thursday before a revolver loaded with some type of round was handed to Baldwin, 63, the film's star and producer, during a rehearsal at the Bonanza Creek Ranch. But social media critics have pointed to missed steps in the gun safety process.

Industry experts also said in interviews Monday that under production protocols, nothing should have been loaded in the gun, and it should have been checked several times to ensure it was safe.

Two workers have faced the heaviest scrutiny: Hannah Gutierrez, who was handling firearms as the production's armorer and had prepared a cart with three weapons that day; and assistant director David Halls, who grabbed the revolver from the cart and handed it to Baldwin, telling him it was a "cold gun," indicating it empty of any projectiles, including blanks.

Film director Joel Souza, who was wounded in the shooting, told detectives Gutierrez was expected to check the revolver and Halls was expected to provide a second check before giving it to Baldwin, according to one search warrant affidavit, publicly released by the sheriff's office late Sunday night.

Deputies requested access to numerous items and equipment on the set in two separate search warrants — firearms, ammunition, photographs of the building, fingerprints, cameras, digital storage devices, computer hardware and the clothing worn by Baldwin during the shooting.

The affidavit released Sunday said crew members told investigators Baldwin was always safe when he handled firearms.

Cameraman Ried Russel said he had witnessed Baldwin's safety efforts during previous rehearsals for Rust. "Ried said Alec made sure it was safe and that a child wasn't near him when they were discharging a firearm during that scene," the search warrant affidavit says.

But the shooting followed days and even weeks of tumult on the set of Rust. Sources close to the production have told news outlets, including the Los Angeles Times, it was the fourth time a gun had misfired in a few of weeks of filming.

Crew members also had complained about poor working conditions and safety issues.

Several camera crew members had walked off the set the morning of the shooting amid a dispute over payments and housing issues, Souza told investigators, according to the search warrant affidavit.

After the walkout, the remaining crew had only one camera to use that day and was holding the rehearsal to determine how best to shoot the scene under the limiting conditions, Souza added.

He said they were rehearsing a scene inside a church building at the movie ranch. Baldwin was to sit in a wooden pew facing south toward the camera before "cross drawing his weapon and pointing the revolver toward the camera lens," the affidavit says.

As they rehearsed, Souza said, Baldwin drew his gun and Souza heard "what sounded like a whip" and a loud pop. He said he looked back to see 42-year-old Hutchins holding her abdomen, bleeding and saying she couldn't feel her legs. She was transported to the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque, where she succumbed to her injuries.

Souza was treated for a shoulder wound at a local hospital.

An email sent from the Rust production team to crew members over the weekend said the project has been put on hold, "at least until the investigations are complete."

The email offered grief counseling to workers and said the production team was conducting its own review of safety protocols. "Although our hearts are broken, and it is hard to see beyond the horizon, this is, at the moment, a pause rather than an end," the email said.

It was unclear whether Halls or Gutierrez will return to the production if the project gets underway again.

Halls was fired from a job in 2019 after a gun went off on a set and wounded a member of the film crew, an unnamed producer told the Associated Press.

Licensed pyrotechnician and prop maker Maggie Goll also told the AP Halls had disregarded safety protocols for weapons and pyrotechnics while filming Hulu's Into the Dark.

Halls' Facebook profile has been deactivated since the shooting.

Social media accounts for 24-year-old Gutierrez — the daughter of Hollywood consultant, stuntman and armorer Thell Reed — also were shut down.

Many critics have pointed to Gutierrez's inexperience.

One of them is Serge Svetnoy, the chief electrician for Rust, who took to Facebook to recount how Hutchins, his friend, had bled out in his arms due to what he called "negligence and unprofessionalism."

In early September, Gutierrez said on a Voices of the West podcast she was excited to start a "long and cool career" after taking on her first role as head armorer for the film The Old Way, starring Nicolas Cage.

"I was really nervous about it at first, and I almost didn't take the job because I wasn't sure if I was ready," she said. "But doing it, it went really smoothly."

Actor Ari Barkan — who has had roles in films such as The Wolf of Wall Street and The Fix and TV shows like Orange is the New Black, Law & Order: Organized Crime and Blue Bloods — said he unsuccessfully auditioned for a part in Rust in August, and he is happy the audition didn't go his way.

Sets are supposed to feel safe, he said, and people have to be checking the guns.

Barkan, 31, said he's fired a prop gun about 20 times. Each time, he added, the armorer and assistant director were heavily involved in ensuring the gun was safe to use.

Normally, the process begins with an armorer bringing the gun to the director or assistant director to show nothing is inside, he said. Then it is brought to the actor with the assistant director, who often shines a light through it to show an empty barrel and chamber.

In his experience, the assistant director always has been the common thread of safety, Barkan said.

Retired police officer and firearms expert Matt Clanton described a similar process on movie sets. Clanton is a technical adviser for firearms safety and said he has trained more than 2,000 actors.

Clanton said he often will show an actor there is no magazine loaded, no round in the chamber and no obstruction in the barrel.

If a "hot gun" is needed for a scene, he said, he'll often show the actor while he's loading it with blanks. He's meticulous about how many blanks are loaded and will immediately retrieve the gun when the scene is over.

"It's a tedious process," he said, "but it keeps people safe."

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