Sheriff says ‘Rust’ film set showed ‘some complacency’ with weapons
SANTA FE, N.M. — Investigators said Wednesday there was “some complacency” in how weapons were handled on the movie set where Alec Baldwin accidentally shot and killed a cinematographer and wounded another person, but it’s too soon to determine whether charges will be filed.
Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza noted that 500 rounds of ammunition — a mix of blanks, dummy rounds and live rounds — were found while searching the set of the Western “Rust.”
“Obviously I think the industry has had a record recently of being safe. I think there was some complacency on this set, and I think there are some safety issues that need to be addressed by the industry and possibly by the state of New Mexico,” Sheriff Mendoza told a news conference nearly a week after the shooting.
Authorities also confirmed there was no footage of the shooting, which happened during a rehearsal.
Investigators believe Mr. Baldwin’s gun fired a single live round that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza.
Detectives have recovered a lead projectile they believe the actor fired last week. Testing is being done to confirm whether the projectile taken from Mr. Souza’s shoulder was fired from the same long Colt revolver used by Mr. Baldwin. The FBI will help with ballistics analysis.
Two other guns were seized, including a single-action revolver that may have been modified and a plastic gun that was described as a revolver, officials said.
Mr. Souza, who was standing behind Ms. Hutchins, told investigators there should never be live rounds present near the scene.
“We suspect that there were other live rounds, but that’s up to the testing. But right now, we’re going to determine how those got there, why they were there because they shouldn’t have been,” Sheriff Mendoza said.
District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said investigators cannot say yet whether it was negligence or by whom. She called it a complex case that will require more research and analysis.
“It will take many more facts, corroborated facts, before we can get to that criminal negligence standard,” she said.
Investigators said they planned to follow up on reports of other incidents involving misfires with guns on the set.
Mike Tristano, a veteran armorer, or movie weapons specialist, was alarmed to hear that live rounds were mixed in with blanks and dummy rounds.
“I find that appalling,” Mr. Tristano said. “In over 600 films and TV shows that I’ve done, we’ve never had a live round on set.”
The shooting has baffled Hollywood professionals and prompted calls to better regulate firearms on sets or even ban them in the age of seamless computer-generated imagery. Court records say an assistant director grabbed the gun from a cart and indicated the weapon was safe by yelling “cold gun.”
The armorer on the Baldwin film, Hannah Gutierrez Reed, said she checked dummy bullets on the day of the shooting to ensure none was a “hot” round. She also told a detective that while the guns used for filming were locked up during a crew lunch break, ammunition was left on a cart unsecured, according to a search warrant released Wednesday ahead of the news conference.
Ms. Gutierrez Reed told a detective that no live ammo was ever kept on the set.
When reached Wednesday by The Associated Press, she declined to comment. She said Monday by text message that she was looking for a lawyer.
Assistant director David Halls, who handed the gun to Mr. Baldwin before the shooting, said Ms. Gutierrez Reed typically opened the hatch of the gun and spun the drum, although he couldn’t recall if she did that before the shooting. He said he only remembered seeing three rounds in the gun, according to the warrant.
After the shooting, Mr. Halls took the gun to Ms. Gutierrez Reed and said he saw five rounds in the gun, at least four of them were “dummy” rounds indicated by a hole on the side and a cap on the round. Mr. Halls said there was also a casing in the gun that did not have the cap and did not have the hole indicating it was a dummy, the warrant said.