Police release videos in probe of Rust shooting
SANTA FE: Law enforcement officials released a trove of video evidence on Monday in the ongoing investigation of a fatal October shooting of a cinematographer by actor and producer Alec Baldwin on the set of a Western movie.
Data files released by the Santa Fe county sheriff’s office include lapel camera recordings taken by a commanding officer as he arrives at a film-set ranch where medics are attending to the wounded. A search for the gun leads to the movie production’s armourer, who breaks down in tears.
Other videos show investigators as they debriefing Baldwin within hours of the fatal shooting, talking with him inside a compact office — and rehearsal clips that show Baldwin in costume as he practices a quickdraw manoeuvre with a gun.
Santa Fe county sheriff Adan Mendoza said that the investigation by his agency remains open and ongoing as it awaits the results of ballistics and forensic analysis from the FBI as well as studies of fingerprint and DNA.
Those files also include photos of ammunition from the set and examination reports.
At a ranch on the outskirts of Santa Fe on October 21, 2021, Baldwin was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins when it went off, killing Hutchins and wounding the director, Joel Souza.
In a video taken by police later that day, Baldwin makes a few frantic calls as he awaits a meeting with law enforcement officials.
“You have no idea how unbelievable this is and how strange this is,” he says over the phone.
Under questioning by two investigators, Baldwin pieces together what happened as the gun went off, still apparently unaware that Hutchins would die and shocked to learn that he had been holding a gun loaded with live ammunition.