Santa Fe, New Mexico, Oct. 23 (BUS): As a Western-style film crew and actors prepare to rehearse for a scene inside a church-like wooden building on a desert film plantation outside Santa Fe, assistant director Dave Halls climbs outside and grabs a prop gun from a wagon .
He went back inside and handed it to the movie’s star, Alec Baldwin, assuring him that it was safe to use as it contained no live ammunition.
“Cool gun,” shouted Holz.
That wasn’t the case, according to court records made public Friday. Instead, when Baldwin pulled the trigger Thursday, cinematographer Helena Hutchins was killed and director Joel Sousa, who was standing behind her, was wounded, according to the Associated Press.
The tragedy came nearly three decades after Brandon Lee, the son of martial arts legend Bruce Lee, died in a similar situation, and raised terrifying questions about how it could happen again. The executive producer of ABC’s police drama “The Rookie” announced Friday that the show will no longer use “live” weapons because “the safety of our cast and crew is extremely important.”
Details of the shooting at the farm located on Bonanza Creek Road were included in a search warrant request filed by the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office. Detectives were seeking to examine Baldwin’s bloodstained costume for “Rust,” as well as the gun fired, other prop guns and ammunition, and any footage that might be present.
The gun was one of three that the film’s armorer, Hana Gutierrez, placed on a cart outside the building where the scene was being acted out, according to records. Holes grabbed the rifle from the wagon and moved it to Baldwin, unaware that it was loaded with live ammunition, one of the investigators wrote in a search warrant request.
It was not clear how many shells were fired. Court records said Gutierrez removed a shell casing from the rifle after the shooting and handed the weapon over to police upon arrival.
Halls did not immediately respond with phone and email messages seeking comment. The Associated Press was unable to contact Gutierrez, and several letters sent to the film’s production companies were not immediately returned on Friday.
The film’s script supervisor, Mamie Mitchell, said she was standing next to Hutchins when she was shot.
“I ran out and called 911 and said ‘Get everyone, send everyone,'” Mitchell told The Associated Press. She was an exceptional, rare and very rare woman.”
Mitchell said she and other crew members were attending a private memorial service Friday night in Santa Fe.
Baldwin described the killing as a “tragic accident”.
“There are no words to express my shock and sadness over the tragic incident that took the life of Halina Hutchins, our deeply admired wife, mother and colleague. I am fully cooperating with the police investigation,” Baldwin wrote on Twitter. “My heart is broken for her husband, her son, and everyone who knew and loved Halina.”
No immediate charges were brought and a spokesman for Mayor Juan Rios said Baldwin had been allowed to travel.
“He’s a free man,” said Rios.
Pictures of the 63-year-old actor — known for his roles in “30 Rock” and “The Hunt for Red October” and his impression of former President Donald Trump on “Saturday Night Live” — showed him stunned outside the sheriff’s office on Thursday.
The guns used in filmmaking are sometimes real weapons that can shoot bullets or blanks, which are charges of gunpowder that produce a flash and an explosion but not a deadly projectile. Even vacuums can eject hot gases and paper or plastic fillers from a barrel that can be deadly at close range. This was proven to be the case in the death of an actor in 1984.
In another identified incident in 1993, Lee was killed after a bullet was left in a prop pistol, and similar shootings occurred using theater weapons loaded with live ammunition during historical reenactments.
Stephen Holl, Britain’s veteran director of photography, said US gun safety protocol has since improved. But he said that one of the most dangerous situations to be in is behind the camera because that person is in the line of fire in scenes where the actor appears to be pointing a gun at the audience.
Rios said that sheriff’s representatives responded around 2 p.m. to the film that was placed at Bonanza Creek Ranch after a 911 call described a person injured there. The farm has been used in dozens of movies, including Tom Hanks’ latest Western “News of the World.”
Hutchins, 42, worked as a filmmaker for the 2020 action movie “Archenemy,” starring Joe Manganiello. She graduated in 2015 from the American Film Institute and was named a “Rising Star” by the American Cinematographer in 2019.
“It’s outrageous that this happened on set,” Adam Egypt Mortimer, director of Archenemy, said on Twitter. “She was an incredible talent who was totally committed to art and photography.”
Manganiello described Hutchins as a “terrific talent” and “a wonderful person” on his Instagram account. He said he was lucky to have worked with her.
After filming, production was halted due to “rust”. The film is about a 13-year-old boy who is left to fend for himself and his younger brother after their parents’ deaths in Kansas in the 1880s, according to the Internet Movie Database. The teenager escapes with his long-estranged grandfather (played by Baldwin) after the boy is sentenced to death for the accidental murder of a local rancher.