New videos show Alec Baldwin firing prop gun days before fatal Rust shooting
New footage has emerged showing Alec Baldwin practising with a prop gun on the set of Rust, days before he shot a pistol which killed the film’s cinematographer. Watch video.
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Newly-released videos from the doomed set of Rust show actor Alec Baldwin firing prop guns and speaking with the crew about firearm safety — telling one person to move away from the camera because “I don’t want to shoot towards you.”
The videos, obtained and published by NBC News in the US, were reportedly filmed days before the actor fired a live round, which killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and seriously injured the film’s director in October 2021.
According to a report in the New York Post the previously unseen footage, about seven minutes in five videos, emerged as a grand jury is scheduled to consider new involuntary manslaughter charges against Baldwin.
One of the videos reportedly shows him lying on the ground and telling someone to move to the “other side of the camera” because “I don’t want to shoot towards you.”
According to TMZ, the person on the other side was Hutchins.
In another video, Baldwin asks for a blanket to be placed next to him and he uses it as a landing pad after tossing the gun aside.
The actor is also seen in character firing a prop gun before he runs out of dummy rounds.
“One more, one more, one more. Right away, right away, let’s reload,” Baldwin says, apparently in an attempt to keep the scene moving, according to the video published by NBC News.
“We should have had two guns and both of them reloading.”
In the other videos, Baldwin stops filming the Western drama to check on the safety of the crew and tells them they must use a safer part of a steep trail.
At one point, a cameraman falls and the actor repeatedly asks, “Are you OK?”
According to the report, the videos are among dozens of clips presented last month to the special prosecutors after they were first requested from Rust Movie Productions LLC in recent months.
It was unclear how much of the new footage has been reviewed by the prosecutors, according to NBC News.
Prosecutor Kari Morrissey declined to comment to the outlet, citing pending grand jury proceedings, when asked which video her team reviewed and whether any of it was used to decide about charges.
A source familiar with the case told NBC News the five videos could be presented to the grand jury.
The outlet previously reported that the prosecutors are set to recharge Baldwin with involuntary manslaughter.
Last month, Baldwin’s lawyers told the New York Post that “it is unfortunate that a terrible tragedy has been turned into this misguided prosecution. We will answer any charges in court”.
Morrissey and her colleague Jason Lewis dismissed Baldwin’s initial involuntary manslaughter charge in April due to “new facts” in the case – but they retained the right to recharge the actor, writing, “This decision does not absolve Mr Baldwin of criminal culpability and charges may be refiled.”
Director Joel Souza was also injured in the incident on the set.
In 2021, Baldwin told ABC News he had “no idea” how a live bullet got into the gun, but added he “didn’t pull the trigger” on the pistol.
Investigators who took apart the prop pistol found it had worn joints and the trigger control did not function properly, according to NBC.
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