Alec Baldwin shooting: New witness accounts of fatal movie shooting

New witness accounts about the moments before and after the accidental fatal shooting involving Alec Baldwin on a movie set have emerged.

Heartbreaking new details have emerged about cinematographer Halyna Hutchins’ final moments after she was accidentally shot on the set of Alec Baldwin’s movie Rust.

The production’s chief electrician Serge Svetnoy has recounted holding Hutchins as she was bleeding to death at the Bonanza Creek Ranch in New Mexico.

“I was holding her in my arms while she was dying,” Svetnoy said, per Deadline.

In a post on Facebook, he wrote: “I was standing shoulder to shoulder with Halyna during this fatal shot that took her life and injured the director, Joel Souza”.

“I was holding her in my arms while she was dying. Her blood was on my hands.”

Svetnoy accused Rust’s producers of risking the crew’s lives. “To save a dime sometimes, you hire people who are not fully qualified for the complicated and dangerous job, and you risk the lives of the other people who are close and your lives as well,” he said.

Meantime, court documents containing previously unreleased statements from Rust director Souza and a cameraman were released by the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office.

Serge Svetnoy posted this photo on Facebook describing the final scene involving Halyna Hutchins and Alec Baldwin. Picture: Facebook

Serge Svetnoy reflects on the Rust tragedy.

A distraught Alec Baldwin after being questioned about the shooting. Picture: Jim Weber

Juan Rios, of the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s office, confirmed there were multiple witnesses to the accidental shooting.

“Apparently there were quite a few people at the scene of what happened,” Rios said.

Per the New York Times, the affidavit cites Detective Joel Cano who obtained a search warrant “to seize everything from camera memory cards to bone fragments and firearm discharge”.

Baldwin was said to have been “practising” drawing the gun across his body – and pointing it “towards the camera lens” – when the weapon was fired, hitting Hutchins in the chest and wounding Souza.

“Joel stated that they had Alec sitting in a pew in a church building setting, and he was practising a cross draw,” the affidavit stated.

“Joel said he was looking over the shoulder of Halyna, when he heard what sounded like a whip and then loud pop. Joel then vaguely remembers (Hutchins) complaining about her stomach and grabbing her midsection.

“Joel also said (Hutchins) began to stumble backwards and she was assisted to the ground.

“Joel explained that he was bleeding from his shoulder and he could see blood on Halyna.”

‘A MASSIVE MISTAKE’

Baldwin was among a small group of people responsible for checking the prop gun that killed cinematographer Hutchins, according to a location manager for Rust.

Stacey Mickey-Evans said at least four people were in charge of checking the weapon — including the Hollywood star.

“A massive mistake was made,” Mickey-Evans told radio station Triple M.

“There are massive protocols to stop these things from happening. There are multiple checks for it.”

The armorist, assistant director and key grip are supposed to check the gun and “then very lastly the actor checks the gun”, she said.

“So there are four to five people in this stage,” she said, adding “somehow there was a failure.”

Hilaria Baldwin has spoken out about her ‘heartache’ over the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Picture: AFP

It came as Baldwin’s wife Hilaria Baldwin broke her silence about the fatal on-set shooting, saying she was in “shock” over the “tragic accident”.

“My heart is with Halyna,” Hilaria Baldwin wrote on Instagram. “Her husband. Her son. Their family and loved ones. And my Alec.

“It’s said, ‘There are no words because it’s impossible to express shock and heartache of such a tragic accident,” she wrote. “Heartbreak. Loss. Support.”

The post prompted several celebrities to respond in support, reported the New York Post.

“Holding Halyna, her family and Alec and his family in (our) hearts,” Katie Couric posted.

Rosie O’Donnell added, “sending love,” while actress Melanie Griffith wrote, “Sending love to all. Holding you all in my heart.”

Hilaria’s post was her first public comment since her actor husband shot and killed Hutchins on the New Mexico set of the Western flick Rust when he was given a real gun with a live bullet instead of blanks.

Movie sets have typically used real guns loaded with blanks, although a growing number of directors are leaning toward using fake guns with computer-generated muzzle flashes added in post-production.

Hutchins, 42, was killed and director Souza, 48, was wounded in the incident.

A source close to the Baldwins told Peoplemagazine the 63-year-old actor was “absolutely devastated” over the on-set mishap and was cancelling other projects to be with his family. Hilaria Baldwin reportedly left the couple’s New York home after the shooting, with the couple’s kids later seen leaving as well — presumably to join their parents.

ROOKIE ARMOURER ‘STILL LEARNING’ ON SET

The inexperienced armourer in charge of weapons when Alec Baldwin accidentally shot dead his cinematographer on the set of his film Rust said on a recent podcast that the “best part” of her job is proving “how safe” guns are.

According to a report in the New York Post, Hannah Gutierrez Reed, a 24-year-old former model, told the Voices of the West podcast last month about landing the “pretty sweet gig” with her first movie as head armourer in August.

The church on the set of Rust where Halyna Hutchins was killed. Picture: AP

“I think the best part about my job is just showing people who are normally kind of freaked out by guns how safe they can be and how they’re not really problematic unless put in the wrong hands,” Reed said.

She said her dad, well-known Hollywood armourer Thell Reed, gave her some direction growing up — but she “figured” out most of the job requirements on “my own”.

She also admitted that “loading blanks” is the “scariest thing to me” — the issue seemingly behind the fatal accident on the New Mexico set of Baldwin’s movie Rust, only her second head-armourer job.

She told the podcast how she learned by herself how to make sure dummy rounds were in the right spot of any weapons being used.

Armourer Hannah Gutierrez Reed on the set of Rust. Picture: Facebook

“You have to like look at the front of it and determine which one is the blank, if it’s dummied up. That’s how I tell at least,” she said.

Reed also recalled how she had previously been a model but then wanted to be either an actress or a director of photography, the position held by Halyna Hutchins when she was shot dead by Baldwin last Thursday.

She switched course to being an armourer after she “tried it with dad one time and realised I had a natural knack for it,” she said, calling it “a pretty sweet gig.”

“Every movie I’m learning new and new things — it’s all very quick,” she said, stressing that she is “still learning”.

Hannah Gutierrez Reed said was ‘still learning’, her role as an armourer on the set of Rust when Halyna Hutchins was killed. Picture: Facebook

Reed reportedly said that she “was really nervous” before her first job as head armourer, on Nicolas Cage’s The Old Way in August, that she “almost didn’t take the job because I wasn’t sure if I was ready”.

She said she expected it to turn into a “really long and cool career.”

Her dad is a former Marine, who was Brad Pitt’s gun coach on The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and a quick draw expert on Django Unchained, which starred Leonardo DiCaprio.

Despite her inexperience, the prop master who supervised Reed on The Old Way insisted that he was “stymied” by the possibility she could be involved in last week’s fatal shooting, which also injured Rust director Joel Souza.

Alec Baldwin shot a gun on a film set, which killed cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins.

“I’m surprised that any of this happened under her watch,” Jeffrey Crow told the Los Angeles Times.

“I thought she was an exceptionally young, up-and-coming, very eager and talented armourer.

“She was without a lot of experience, but coming from her family lineage, I thought she was exceptional, professional, and I thought she had — I still think she has — many years of an amazing career ahead of her,” Crow said.

“I had a lot of faith in her, and I still do. I’m gonna be surprised if there was anything she was ultimately responsible for in all this, just seeing how she acted in the past. This is all such a surprise.”

Hannah Gutierrez Reed was in charge of guns on the set of Rust. Picture: Facebook

BALDWIN ‘DREW REVOLVER ACROSS HIS BODY’

New court documents have revealed Baldwin was drawing a revolver across his body and pointing it at a camera during rehearsal on the set of western film Rust when a fatal shot was fired.

Baldwin was practising a cross draw in a church pew when he accidentally shot and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

The affidavit, released Monday, contained more details about the tragic shooting in New Mexico that killed Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza.

According to the new court documents, Baldwin was given the prop gun and told it was unloaded.

“Joel stated that they had Alec sitting in a pew in a church building setting, and he was practising a cross draw,” it stated.

“Joel said he was looking over the shoulder of (Hutchins), when he heard what sounded like a whip and then loud pop.”

The film’s cinematographer Hutchins, 42, was then shot in the chest area.

Instagram photo of Halyna Hutchins who was shot on set by Alec Baldwin.

Reid Russel, a cameraman who was standing next to Hutchins, told officials she said she could not feel her legs.

Souza, 48, and Russel also said there was a walkout by a camera crew before the tragic accident.

“Reid stated that the camera crew was having issues with production involving payment and housing,” the affidavit read, before six people walked out.

Serge Svetnoy, chief electrician for Rust, said that he held Hutchins his arms while she was dying and blamed “negligence and unprofessionalism” for her death.

It comes as more details from the 911 call emerged, including how a crew member blamed a colleague.

Writer/director Joel Souza. Picture: Getty Images

During the panicked call, the film’s script supervisor Mamie Mitchell can be heard telling operators: “We‘ve had two people accidentally shot on a movie set by a prop gun.

“We need help immediately”.

The crew member making the call said that she couldn‘t confirm if a real bullet was fired.

She also then told the dispatch it was during a rehearsal that the gun went off. But she said she couldn‘t say if the wounds on either victim were serious.

While on the call, the script supervisor then appears to speak to someone else with her as she begins “placing the blame” on another crew member.

She said: “he‘s supposed to check the guns, he’s responsible,” before the operator then asks more questions.

Halyna Hutchins was shot on set by Alec Baldwin. Picture: Instagram

A devastated Baldwin is cancelling his other work projects to “take some time to himself and re-centre himself” after the tragedy.

A source close to the 63-year-old actor told People magazine the father of seven needed to “take a while to himself, to be with his family.”

His wife Hilaria and their six young children were pictured leaving their Manhattan residence after the deadly shooting.

The gun was given to Baldwin on the movie set loaded with a live round, according to a warrant from the ongoing police investigation.

According to the affidavit, Baldwin was handed one of three prop guns by assistant director David Halls that were set up in a cart by an armourer.

Halls, who did not know there were live rounds in the gun, told Baldwin that it was “cold”, indicating that it did not have live rounds, the affidavit said.

Alec Baldwin is doubled over outside the Santa Fe County Sheriff's offices after the shooting. Picture: Jim Weber/Santa Fe New Mexican

It has also been claimed crew members used the gun that Baldwin fired for target practice – and the live round may have been left after one of these sessions.

The incident left the veteran actor “hysterical and absolutely inconsolable for hours,” the source told People.

Baldwin, who said in a Twitter post he was heartbroken for Hutchins’ family, had an emotional meeting with the popular cinematographer’s husband and nine -year-old son after the tragedy.

American actor Jensen Ackles, Baldwins’ co-star on Rust, paid tribute to Ms Hutchins, describing the incident as “a tragedy of epic proportions”.

Jensen Ackles has paid tribute to Halyna Hutchins after her tragic death.

The star of TV’s Supernatural wrote on Instagram: “I’m not even sure where to start.

“This has been a tragedy of epic proportions that we are all still processing.”

“Earlier last week I felt compelled to tell Halyna just how awesome I thought she was. I told her how incredible I thought her camera shots were and just how exciting it was to watch her and her team work. Truly.

“She laughed and said thank you and gave me a hug. I’ll forever be thankful we had that moment. She had a spunk and passion that infected the entire crew from the top down. She was an inspiration.”

He said: “My heart and prayers go out to Halyna’s husband, son and the rest of her family. There just aren’t enough words to express what an immense loss this is.

“She will be incredibly missed by all of us who knew and admired her.”

He also confirmed that alongside his wife, Danneel, he had made a donation to the GoFundMe page set up in Hutchins’ honour.

Police have confirmed that the investigation into the incident remains “open and active” and said that “no charges have been filed in regard to the incident” so far.