Assistant director says armorer handed gun to Alec Baldwin before fatal shooting of cinematographer
Courtroom testimony from an assistant director in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer by Alec Baldwin is providing new details about a final safety check on a revolver and exactly who handed the gun to the actor
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Courtroom testimony in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer by Alec Baldwin provided new details Thursday that conflict with other, earlier accounts about a final safety check on a revolver and exactly who handed it to the actor during rehearsal for the Western movie “Rust.”
Assistant director David Halls, the safety coordinator on set, told jurors that weapons supervisor Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who is on trial on charges of manslaughter and evidence tampering, twice handed the revolver to Baldwin. It was first emptied of bullets, Halls testified, and then loaded again with several dummy rounds and a live round.
Baldwin was pointing the weapon at Hutchins when it went off on the movie set ranch on the outskirts of Santa Fe on Oct. 20, 2021, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza. Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer on “Rust,” was separately indicted by a grand jury last month; his trial is scheduled for July.
“I did not see Ms. Gutierrez take the gun from Mr. Baldwin,” Halls said during questioning by the prosecution, “but she appeared back on my left-hand side and she said that she had put dummy rounds into the revolver.”
