Alec Baldwin has finally handed over a piece of key evidence in the Rust shooting
Alec Baldwin has finally handed over his phone to police as they investigate the accidental fatal shooting on the set of his move, Rust.
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Alec Baldwin has finally handed over his phone to police as they investigate the accidental fatal shooting on the set of his move, Rust.
The actor, 63, handed the device into Long Island police on Friday, local time, nearly a month after authorities secured a warrant for it, Page Six reports.
The former 30 Rock star surrendered his phone, which is believed to contain information about the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in October, to the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office, a spokesman confirmed.
“They will conduct the extraction of the data, and then hand the phone over to us,” Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office public information officer Juan Rios said.
The handover came one day after the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office went public with Baldwin’s reluctance to hand over his phone, saying “to date, the cell phone has not been turned over to authorities”.
Police in New Mexico were granted a warrant for the phone on December 16 and Baldwin’s lawyer was notified, but the actor failed to turn it over for weeks.
“Any suggestion that I am not complying with requests or orders, or search warrants about my phone, that’s bulls —. That’s a lie,” Baldwin said in a social media video, posted on January 8.
“Any suggestion that I am not complying with requests or orders, or search warrants about my phone, that’s bulls***. That’s a lie,” Baldwin said in the video.
“It’s a process that takes time. They have to specify what exactly they want.
“They just can’t go through your phone and take, you know, your photos or your love letters to your wife or whatever.
“But, of course, we are 1000 per cent going to comply with all that. We’re, you know, perfectly fine with that.”
ARMOURER FILES LAWSUIT
Meantime, the armourer at the centre of the Rust shooting tragedy that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins is laying part of the blame on Alec Baldwin for failing to attend a training session.
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed filed a lawsuit in a New Mexico court claiming Balwdin “ignored” a request to attend a cross draw”session in the week leading up to the tragedy.
Gutierrez-Reed also pointed the finger at Rust’s assistant director David Halls for failing to follow on-set protocol when he allegedly handed Baldwin the weapon, without calling on her to inspect it first, the lawsuit states.
The 24-year-old is suing Seth Kenney and his company PDQ Arm and Prop LLC for allegedly supplying the deadly bullet. Baldwin is not named as a defendant in the suit.
New York Post reports that Gutierrez-Reed claimed that Kenney made “false representations” and caused “live rounds to be introduced” on the New Mexico set.
The lawsuit alleges another prop assistant brought in a new box of .45-caliber Long Colt rounds from Kenney’s shop the day of the shooting on Oct. 21.
Gutierrez-Reed said she thought the rounds from that box were blanks but no one has acknowledged where the box came from.
Baldwin was told that the gun was “cold”, indicating that the weapon contained dummy bullets.
However, a live bullet struck and killed Hutchins as she was setting up a shot, the lawsuit alleges.
Rust Joel Souza was also struck by the bullet after it exited Hutchins’ body though he survived his injuries.
Gutierrez-Reed said she and two other prop assistants handled the guns, which had been stored inside a safe.
She remembers cleaning the gun that Baldwin used and placing what she thought was another round from the dummy ammo box.
“To the best of Hannah’s knowledge, the gun was now loaded with 6 dummy rounds,” the lawsuit stated.
“Indeed, Defendants as suppliers of prop ammunition to the Rust set, sold, distributed, and advertised its props as dummy ammunition and not live rounds. Hannah relied upon and trusted that Defendants would only supply dummy prop ammunition, or blanks, and no live rounds were ever to be on set.”
Gutierrez-Reed said she spun the cylinder for the assistant director Dave Halls and showed him what she thought were loaded blank rounds. The armourer said Halls told her the gun was not going to be used for a scene or rehearsal, so she left the gun inside the church set while she attended to her other duties outside.
Halls was supposed to alert the armourer if Baldwin or anyone else used the gun because she was required to reinspect the firearm under rules of the set, the lawsuit alleges. About 15 minutes later, Gutierrez-Reed claims Halls gave the firearm to Baldwin and called out, “cold gun,” which signified the firearm was empty or contained blank rounds.
The armourer was not present when Baldwin practised a cross-draw move from his shoulder holster and camera angles with Hutchins for a scene, the lawsuit revealed.
Gutierrez-Reed said no one alerted her that the actor was practising with the gun, which Baldwin said “just went off”.
“Had Hannah been called back in, she would have reinspected the weapon, and every round again, and instructed Baldwin on safe gun practice with the cross draw, as was her standard practice,” the lawsuit said, adding the gun had been out of her possession for more than 15 minutes.
“Hannah would never have let Baldwin point the weapon at Halyna, as part of standard safe gun practices.
“Apparently, no one inside the church stopped Baldwin from doing so, including AD Halls.”
Gutierrez-Reed alleged Kenney tried to shift the blame onto her and that the ammunition business owner has tampered with the investigation.
No criminal charges have been filed against crew members or others in the Rust tragedy.
Other crew members, including lighting technician Serge Svetnoy and script supervisor Mamie Mitchell, have filed separate suits against Baldwin, producers, and companies who were in charge of the film.
Originally published as Alec Baldwin has finally handed over a piece of key evidence in the Rust shooting
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