Several camera crew members had walked out on the film “Rust” before actor Alec Baldwin discharged a prop firearm that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza, according to a search warrant. About six crew members were protesting issues related to payment and housing, and they wrote a letter to producers about their disagreements over labor conditions.
The crew walkout is one of several new details included in an affidavit filed by a detective from the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office. The document provides a fuller picture of how the tragedy unfolded on the set of the New Mexico production last week, down to some of Hutchins’s final moments.
The detective spoke after the Thursday incident with Souza, who said work started late that day because they hired another camera crew to step in for those who had walked out. They were working with only one camera, according to Souza, so the day progressed more slowly than usual. He stood beside Hutchins that afternoon to view the camera angle for a scene set inside a church building at Bonanza Creek Ranch.
Souza recalled Baldwin sitting on a pew while rehearsing the scene, which required the actor to cross draw his character’s weapon and point it toward the camera. The director remembered someone saying “cold gun” before Baldwin was handed the firearm, a term used to confirm that the weapon contained no live rounds. (That person is identified as assistant director Dave Halls elsewhere in the affidavit.)
Baldwin was practicing that move when Souza heard what he described as “a whip and then loud pop.” He said Hutchins held her abdomen before stumbling backward. She was then helped to the floor. Souza saw blood on Hutchins, and noticed he was bleeding from the shoulder.
In a separate interview with the detective, Reid Russell, a camera operator who stood near Souza and Hutchins that day, said he remembered the cinematographer saying she couldn’t feel her legs.
Both Souza and Russell told the detective that everyone on the set seemed to be getting along that day. Russell noted that Baldwin had been “very careful” while handling firearms on the set, mentioning another scene in which the actor made sure to stay away from a child while discharging a weapon.
The interviews explain why Baldwin had been pointing the prop gun in Souza and Hutchins’s direction, but not why they were injured and killed, respectively, after it was discharged.
Hannah Gutierrez, the daughter of widely known Hollywood armorer Thell Reed, acted as the armorer on “Rust.” As such, she was in charge of managing firearms used on set and ensuring they were safely handled. The affidavit states that Gutierrez left three prop guns on a cart outside the building, from which Halls grabbed one and handed it to Baldwin for the rehearsal. Halls was under the impression it did not contain any live rounds when he said “cold gun,” according to the document.
The Washington Post has asked Halls and Gutierrez for comment.
Jeremy Goldstein, an Israeli military veteran and a Hollywood armorer himself, previously told The Post via email that he was alarmed Halls had handled the weapon.
“No crew member should be handling a weapon of any kind other than the armorer, designated prop person or actor. Full stop,” Goldstein said. “The armorer must clear all firearms with the [first assistant director] when bringing them to set, and verify that they are unloaded. Then the armorer does the same with the actor, but the firearm does not leave the custody of the armorer or designated prop person.”
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