District Attorney knows who loaded gun ahead of fatal Rust shooting

The District Attorney investigating the fatal shooting involving Alec Baldwin has revealed she knows who loaded the gun that killed Halyna Hutchins.

The District Attorney in charge of the investigation into the fatal shooting on the set of the movie Rust has revealed she knows who loaded the gun that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

Mary Carmack-Altwies gave insight into the ongoing investigation when speaking with Good Morning America on Wednesday.

When asked if she knew who loaded the fatal shot into the gun, which was only meant to contain blanks, Ms Carmack-Altwies said, “Yes”, but declined to provide any more details.

Tragedy hit the set of Rust last month when a live round discharged from a gun being held by actor Alec Baldwin during a scene rehearsal, resulting in Ms Hutchins’ death.

The film’s director Joel Souza was also injured in the incident and required hospitalisation.

Mr Baldwin had been informed the gun was “cold”, meaning it was supposed to be loaded with blank rounds.

District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said she knows who loaded the gun that fired the fatal shot. Picture: Sam Wasson/Getty Images

Halyna Hutchins who was shot and killed on set of Rust.

During her interview, Ms Carmack-Altwies also rubbished claims of “sabotage” by a disgruntled crew member on the movie set.

Lawyers for armourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed aired the chilling theory last week during an interview with the US Today show.

Ms Gutierrez-Reed was one of four people who handled the gun prior to it being handed to Mr Baldwin, making her a key focus of the investigation. The District Attorney’s office is expected to interview the armourer for a second time.

In an astounding claim, her lawyers revealed investigations were underway to determine whether someone intentionally “sabotaged the set”, saying it was the “most pivotal” and “most central” question in the case.

Ms Gutierrez-Reed claimed she loaded the gun from a box of bullet rounds labelled “dummy” before the shooting.

Hannah Gutierrez Reed was the armourer on the set of Rust.

“We have people who had left the set, who had walked out because they were disgruntled. We have a time frame between 11 (a.m.) and 1 (p.m.), approximately, that day, in which the firearms at times were unattended, so there was opportunity to tamper with this scene,” her lawyer Jason Bowles said.

However, Ms Carmack-Altwies said there is no proof that anyone deliberately replaced the blank rounds with live bullets, saying they still didn’t have an answer into how live rounds ended up on the set.

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

“I know that some defence attorneys have come up with conspiracy theories and have used the word ‘sabotage’. We do not have any proof.

“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.”

Ms Carmack-Altwies said if the rounds were discovered to be deliberately tampered with, then her office would certainly be looking at a higher level murder charge.

Alec Baldwin was holding the gun when it fired and killed Halyna Hutchins. Picture: Angela Weiss/AFP

The set of Rust. Picture: Supplied

She said she understood that more live rounds were found on set in addition to the one that took Ms Hutchins’ life, though she declined to reveal the exact amount.

“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?”

She also disputed claims made by the lawyer for assistant director Dave Halls that he did not take the gun off the prop cart and hand it to Mr Baldwin.

Previous reports state Mr Halls said the gun was “cold”, a term used to indicate a firearm has no live rounds in it, before handing it to Mr Baldwin to rehearse a scene.

However, last week, Mr Halls’ lawyer Lisa Torraco told Fox News did not handle the gun the day of the incident.

“This idea my client grabbed the gun and handed it to Mr Baldwin absolutely did not happen,” she said.

Ms Carmack-Altwies completely shut down this claim, saying, “Yes that does seem to be the case” when asked if Mr Halls handed the gun to Mr Baldwin.

“Everyone initially was very cooperative but adding in attorneys adds in an extra level of complication. We don’t have laws that have been written for this kind of incident,” she said.

The investigation into the shooting is ongoing, with Ms Carmack-Altwies saying the DA office will “absolutely” press charges if the circumstances warrant it.