Moment Alec Baldwin is told Halyna Hutchins has died after on set accident
New footage has shown the moment police told Alec Baldwin that cinematographer Halyna Hutchins died after the actor shot her on the set of their film, Rust. Warning: Graphic
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Police interview footage has revealed the moment Alec Baldwin was told that cinematographer Halyna Hutchins had died after the actor accidentally shot her on set.
Baldwin put his hand over his mouth and sat in silence after being told Hutchins had died after being shot on the set of the western film, Rust.
The cinematographer died after a prop gun held by Baldwin was discharged during rehearsals for the western film in New Mexico in October last year.
Footage released by Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office shows Baldwin at a table with two police officers as one says to him: “I do have some very unfortunate news to tell you. She didn’t make it.”
Baldwin looks distraught as he says, “No!” before putting his hand over his mouth and sitting in silence.
The police officers then tell him that the film’s director Joel Souza, who was injured in the shooting, was still in hospital.
Baldwin then put his hand on his chest as police repeated the news that Hutchins “didn’t make it”, before adding: “I didn’t want you to hear it outside of here.”
Moment actor Alec Baldwin is told cinematographer Halyna Hutchins had died after Rust shooting pic.twitter.com/1W1QO4V2n7
— The Sun (@TheSun) April 27, 2022
When asked if there was anything the deputies could do for him, Baldwin said he wanted to call his wife before walking out of the room with his hand on his forehead.
Baldwin was later photographed in distress in the car park of the police station as he speaks to wife Hilaria on the phone.
Six months after the tragic event, there is no clear indication how a live bullet made it into Baldwin’s gun on set.
‘STAY WITH US’: HUTCHINS’ HAUNTING FINAL MOMENTS
It comes as newly-released footage from the doomed set of Rust shows paramedics frantically trying to save cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, moments after she was accidentally shot dead by Alec Baldwin.
Hutchins, 42, was killed and director Joel Souza was wounded when a gun Baldwin was using during a rehearsal fired off a live bullet in October last year. The movie was being filmed at Bonanza Creek Ranch in New Mexico.
The files, released by the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office, include witness interviews, video taken on set, staff photos, dashcam footage and other evidence that’s been collected since the fatal on-set shooting on October 21.
In the distressing bodycam footage, released as part of a trove of evidence, paramedics can be heard crying “Halyna, stay with us!”.
Hutchins appeared to be unconscious throughout, having been shot through her right armpit, with the bullet that struck her later emerging again through the top of her shoulder.
Not much can be heard other than encouragement for Hutchins and the paramedics yelling out instructions at one another, as she lay on the floor of a church set.
Separate footage also shows Rust set armourer Hannah Gutierrez Reed, who breaks down during the interview and calls herself a “f****** failure”, just moments after Baldwin had been rehearsing a scene that led to the fatal shooting.
In the video, the officers can also be heard asking the 24-year-old if she’s the film’s armourer, which a clearly shaken Gutierrez-Reed responds with: “I am, or at least I was.”
“Welcome to the worst day of my life,” she said.
The armourer can be seen in the bodycam footage being escorted to the bathroom with a female police officer, before she asks if she can get away from the rest of the crew and debrief in the back of one of the police cars. “I just want to get the f*** out of here and never show my face in this industry again,” she says.
Ms Gutierrez-Reed, who was trained as an armourer by her father, Thall Reed, continues in the footage to relay how desperately shaken she is from the incident on the set.
“I’m the only female armourer in the game and I just f***ked up my whole entire career,” she said.
“[I’m] a f***ing failure,” she can be heard saying as the officers continue to debrief her.
Since the incident in October, the Rust armourer has sued the weapons provider, Seth Kenny, as she alleges that he provided a mismarked box of ammunition on the set and delivered a box of live rounds instead of the dummy ones she believed to be accepting.
Mr Kenny has denied these allegations.
Other pictures show 64-year-old Baldwin with his hands outstretched and standing solemnly. They were taken minutes after the shooting but before Baldwin knew Hutchins had died in the hospital as a result of the injuries he accidentally caused.
In a video of his interview, Baldwin said he thought the gun was “cold” when it was handed to him by Hannah Gutierrez-Reed.
At the start of the video Baldwin asks if he is being charged with anything before he then lets out a huge sigh and says: “We’ve done this for two weeks and we’ve done it the right way every day.
“Right before you shoot. I went to lunch.
“She disarmed me – Hannah – she always handled the gun. I come back, they hand me the revolver – Hannah – they arm me. You’re assuming it’s a cold gun. I put the gag in the shot.
“I take the gun out, as it clears – I turn and cock the gun and the gun goes off. It’s supposed to be a cold gun.
“Bang, she hits the ground. (Joel Souza) goes down, screaming, going “Jesus Christ!
“I have never seen this before … What came out of that bullet that went through her shoulder? … She was right in front of me.”
The bullet went through Souza‘s arm first and then struck Hutchins. He recovered with an injury, but Hutchins died in the hospital.
He went on to describe Gutierrez-Reed as “the daughter of a famous gun guy” who gave him the weapon.
As the interview draws to an end, a shocked Baldwin is shown a photograph of what was removed from Souza’s shoulder.
‘That’s a bullet. Somebody put a live bullet in the gun,” he said.
He is then quizzed.
“Did you see the rounds in the gun?”
“No,” Baldwin replies.
“Have you seen what they look like?”
“I’ve watched her load and reload the gun many times,” Baldwin said.
“Have you seen the bullets?”
“Sometimes the head is a casing, it’s pinched and closed at the top and you put the cosmetic round in when you know you’re going to see … those clay-based rounds look exactly like a bullet,” Baldwin said.
“So cosmetically you see that in the cylinder. I am very upset right now … forgive me.”
Baldwin was asked if there was anyone who might have intentionally placed a live bullet in the gun.
He referenced the fact there were crew strikes at the time and that many of the crew walked off set the previous day.
“Those people were on strike against the major studios but not the independent film community. A bunch of people on the set walked off anyway even though they were told not to. That was yesterday,” Baldwin said.
“I don’t even know – I have no idea.”
The investigation into the shooting has never been able to prove whether or not the bullet was intentionally loaded into the gun, or if it was all an accident.
Gutierrez-Reed has insisted throughout that she did not place it in the barrel of the gun and that she might have been sabotaged.
Sheriff Adan Mendoza said in a statement that “various components of the investigation remain outstanding”.
“Once these investigative components are provided to the sheriff’s office, we will be able to complete the investigation to forward it to the Santa Fe district attorney for review,” Sheriff Mendoza said in a statement issued by his office.
And while Baldwin at first had the support of Hutchins’ widower Matt, he has since sued the actor and told how his parading in interviews since his wife’s death made him angry.
“Watching him I just felt so angry to see him talk about her death publicly in such a detailed way and then not accepting any responsibility after he just described killing her,” he said.
“Hearing him blame Halyna in the interview and shift responsibility to others and seeing him cry about it, I just feel like, are we really supposed to feel bad about you, Mr Baldwin?,” he said in an interview in February.
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