Lead projectile is recovered
Sheriff of Santa Fe (New Mexico) County said at a news conference Wednesday that the lead projectile Alec Baldwin fired from a revolver on the “Rust” film set, killing the film’s cinematographer and wounding its director, was recovered from the director’s shoulder and added that investigators believe they recovered more live rounds on the set.
Investigators also believe they have recovered the Colt revolver that fired the shot, Mendoza said, as well as about 500 rounds of ammunition from the set. The ammunition recovered included a mixture of blanks, dummy rounds and what the sheriff ’s department suspects to be live ammunition, which it will send to the FBI crime lab for analysis.
The sheriff declined to comment on how live ammunition got there; typically, live rounds are not allowed anywhere on film sets. He described the gun that fired the fatal shot as a .45 Long Colt revolver.
The shooting happened during a rehearsal for a scene in “Rust,” a Western in which Baldwin was playing an outlaw. Baldwin was practicing a scene with a gun he had been told did not contain live ammunition when it went off, killing the cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, and wounding the director, Joel Souza.
Mendoza used the words “lead projectile” to describe what was recovered from Souza’s shoulder and said it was apparently the same round that had killed Hutchins. Asked if it was an actual bullet that had been fired he said, “We would consider it a live round, a bullet, live, because it did fire from the weapon and
obviously caused the death of Ms. Hutchins and injured Mr. Souza.”
Over the past few days, questions have been raised about how the fatal shooting could have occurred if safety protocols had been followed properly.
“I think there was some complacency on this set,” the sheriff said.
The Santa Fe County district attorney, Mary Carmack-altwies, said at the news conference that the inquiry was continuing and that criminal charges were still possible.
All three people who had handled the gun were cooperating with law enforcement, Mendoza said. According to court papers, the film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-reed, prepared a table on which three guns sat; an assistant director on the film, Dave Halls, grabbed a revolver and declared it to be a “cold gun,” meaning that it had no live ammunition inside and was safe to handle. Then, Halls handed the gun to Baldwin.
Baldwin had been rehearsing a scene that involved “cross drawing ” a revolver and pointing it toward the camera lens, Souza told a detective, according to court papers. When the gun went off, Hutchins was struck in
the chest, and Souza was wounded in the shoulder.
Baldwin is an “active part of this investigation,” the sheriff said.
Detectives said that they recovered three revolvers, spent casings and ammunition on the set. — New York Times
Bieber garners the most nominations
The people have spoken — and Justin Bieber is the top choice.
On Wednesday, NBC and E! announced the nominations for the 2021 People’s Choice Awards and the chart-topping pop music crooner garnered the most nominations.
Bieber led the pack of nods in all music categories including male artist of 2021.
The 27-year-old singer/ songwriter, who recently launched a cannabis line, garnered three nods for his latest single, “Peaches,” featuring Daniel Caesar & Giveon. The song was nominated in three categories: song of 2021, music video of 2021 and collaboration song of 2021.
Lil Nas X came in second with six nominations followed by Olivia Rodrigo and Doja Cat with five each.
The 2021 People’s Choice Awards, which span 40 categories across
movies, television, music, and pop culture and are voted on by fans, will air on NBC and E! simultaneously on Dec. 7 at 9 p.m.
“F9: The Fast Saga” led all film categories with eight nominations including movie of 2021 and action Movie of 2021.
“Black Widow,” “Coming 2 America,” and “A Quiet Place Part II” are among their favorite films from 2021.
Dwayne Johnson muscled his way into three nominations, including male movie star of 2021 for “Jungle Cruise,” male TV Star of 2021 for the autobiographical NBC series “Young Rock” and social star of 2021 for his Instagram power.
On the small screen, “This is Us” raked in six nominations in the television categories including show of 2021. “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Ted Lasso” and “Wandavision” each earned four nods each.
Disney+’s “Loki” and NBC’S longest running primetime procedural drama series “Law & Order: SVU” ranked among the year’s best according to the fans.