Rust shooting: ‘I know who loaded the gun’

The prosecutor investigating the fatal Rust shooting has revealed she knows who put the bullets into the gun fired by Alec Baldwin that killed crew member Halyna Hutchins.

The District Attorney in charge of the investigation into the fatal shooting of Halyna Hutchins on the Rust film set has claimed she knows who loaded the gun.

Mary Carmack-Altwies told Good Morning America on Wednesday local time there were “so many levels of failures” on the set before Hutchins was accidentally shot and killed by star Alec Baldwin on October 21.

Authorities have been investigating how a suspected live round came to be in the gun, which had been declared safe by assistant director, Dave Halls. Asked if she knew who had loaded the fatal shot, Ms Carmack-Altwies said, “Yes”.

The District Attorney also said that investigators found additional live rounds on set, but could not say specifically how many because the investigation was ongoing.

“We don’t have an answer to that yet and we still don’t know how they got on the set and how they got there I think will be one of the most important factors going into a charging decision,” Ms Carmack-Altwies said.

“It’s probably more important to focus on what led up to the shooting because the moment of the shooting, we know that at least Mr Baldwin had no idea that the gun was loaded, so it’s more how did that gun get loaded, what levels of failure happened and were those levels of failure criminal?”

EXCLUSIVE: "I know that some defense attorneys have come up with conspiracy theories and have used the word 'sabotage.' We do not have any proof." — Santa Fe DA refutes claims of conspiracy in criminal investigation of deadly shooting on "Rust" set. https://t.co/kWY5S6eOU4pic.twitter.com/QcRdxdmlbm

— Good Morning America (@GMA) November 10, 2021

Ms Carmack-Altwies also played down claims by the lawyer of the film’s armourer who suggested the weapon could have been intentionally loaded with live ammunition.

“So prosecutors have to deal in facts and in evidence,” she said.

“Defence attorneys have come up with conspiracy theories and used the word ‘sabotage.’ We do not have proof.”

Lawyers for armourer Hanna Gutierrez-Reed have claimed the fatal shooting was caused by “sabotage”. Picture Instagram

Ms Carmack-Altwies then said if it were to be found that someone did, in fact, “sabotage” the set by placing live rounds in the vicinity of the cast and crew, her office would be looking at “certainly a higher level of murder charge than we would potentially be looking at with the facts we have now”.

Cinematographer Halyna Hutchinsdied on the set of Rust. Picture: Supplied

“The defence attorneys, we don’t have the same information that they do. But until we have it in our hands, it doesn’t play into the decision-making process,” she said.

She also disputed claims made by assistant director Dave Halls’ lawyer last week in which she claimed he did not take the gun off of the prop cart.

“Yes that does seem to be the case,” Ms Carmack-Altwies said of her knowledge that Halls handed the gun to Baldwin.

“Everyone initially was very cooperative but adding in [lawyers] adds in an extra level of complication. We don’t have laws that have been written for this kind of incident,” Ms Carmack-Altwies said.

She added that her office will “absolutely” press charges if the circumstances warrant it.

– with Fox News