Fatal shot of Alec Baldwin on set | The gunsmith and assistant director at the heart of the investigation

(Los Angeles) The investigation into the death Thursday of a director of photography in New Mexico, killed by a shot by Alec Baldwin during the filming of a western, continued on Saturday, focusing on two people: l gunsmith and assistant director of the film.

Hit in the chest, according to a preliminary investigation report cited by the local press, Halyna Hutchins was transported by helicopter to hospital, where she was pronounced dead. The movie director Rust, Joel Souza, suffered a shoulder injury during the shot and is recovering.

The role of movie gunsmith Hannah Gutierrez Reed, 24, comes under close scrutiny by investigators as she was the one who, according to the same report, had prepared the gun with which the actor fired the shot fatal. She had placed it on a cart with two other weapons.

Assistant director Dave Halls, described as a seasoned professional, then handed this gun to Mr. Baldwin during a rehearsal for a scene in the film, informing him that it was “cold”, that is – ie not loaded with a real bullet in cinematic jargon.

Mr. Halls “didn’t know the gun was loaded with live ammunition,” said Agent Joel Cano of the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office in New Mexico.

Neither are currently under prosecution, a spokesperson for the sheriff confirmed on Friday. Prosecutor Mary Carmack-Altwies had also indicated in a statement “not to know” at this stage of the investigation if “prosecutions would be initiated”.

The accidental thesis seeming privileged, Alec Baldwin remained at liberty after being questioned.

Retweet

“Words fail me to express my amazement and my sadness after the tragic accident which killed Halyna Hutchins”, the 63-year-old actor had tweeted on Friday, ensuring “to cooperate fully in the investigation”.

On the night of Friday to Saturday, the comedian also retweeted an article from Variety whose title indicates that he had been “informed that the accessory weapon was safe before the fatal shot”, without adding any comment.

The film Rust, which has been suspended indefinitely, is a western written and directed by Joel Souza.

Alec Baldwin, co-producer of the film, takes the lead role of an outlaw who fled with his 13-year-old grandson when the latter was sentenced, following an accidental homicide, to hanging for murder.

A phone call from a woman member of the team to the emergency number of the emergency services (911) also seems to confirm the existence of tensions at the filming site. Six members of the film’s technical crew had left the set, according to the Los Angeles Times, several hours before the tragedy to protest against their working conditions.

” Responsible ”

Asked by the 911 operator about the presence of live bullets in the weapon, this unidentified woman responded, according to the recording made public by theAlbuquerque Journal : “I can’t tell you … And that bastard assistant director who yelled at me at lunch, […] he’s supposed to check the guns, he’s responsible for what happens on the set.

M^me Gutierrez Reed, who has not spoken publicly since the drama, was interviewed in a podcast in early September. Asked about a previous western, The Old Way with Nicolas Cage, the young woman confided to having hesitated to work on the film, not being “sure to be ready”, but that the shooting had then “gone very well”.

Alec Baldwin has made himself particularly popular in the United States in recent years for his impersonations of Donald Trump on the famous satirical show Saturday Night Live.

His reputation, tarnished by a very acrimonious divorce in the early 2000s, had been boosted at the end of the decade by the success of the comic series 30 Rock, where he played a studio boss opposite Tina Fey, which won him two Emmy Awards, equivalent to the Oscars for American television.

Halyna Hutchins, born in Ukraine and living in Los Angeles, was considered a rising star of American cinema. She had grown up in a Soviet military base in the Arctic Circle, according to her website.

Her husband, Matt Hutchins, who confirmed to CBS that Alec Baldwin had contacted him and had shown “great support”, tweeted the “immense loss” of his wife. “Halyna was an inspiration to all of us,” he wrote.