Alec Baldwin shooting: Actor’s daughter defends father as sheriff confirms no-one cleared in probe
Details emerge of events that unfolded on ‘Rust’ set
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Your support makes all the difference.Criminal charges could still be filed in the probe into Halya Hutchin’s death, US police have said. The focus of the investigation is on how live ammunition came to be on the set of the movie project where the fatal incident took place.
District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said that “all options are on the table” and that “no one has been ruled out” of potential charges.
Police made the announcement at a news conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico on Wednesday, six days after the movie-set shooting that left the 42-year-old cinematographer dead.
Investigators said that a “lead projectile” was removed from the shoulder of director Joel Souza and that it appeared to be a live round. Actor Alec Baldwin fired the gun that killed cinematographer Halya Hutchin’s on the set of their film Rust.
Santa Fe sheriff Adan Mendoza has said that officers are “not exactly sure of [Baldwin’s] present whereabouts”, although the actor is said to be cooperating with authorities and had not been instructed to remain in New Mexico.
Mr Bladwin has since been sighted in Vermont with family.
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Alec Baldwin could still face charges for Rust shooting - ‘He fired the weapon’
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Alec Baldwin shooting: Victims hit by single bullet which killed Halyna Hutchins then lodged in director’s shoulder, say police
Authorities don’t rule out possible charges
New Mexico authorities have not ruled out the possibility of multiple charges in Alec Baldwin’s fatal on-set shooting – including for the actor himself.
Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza and District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies offered their first public update on the case on Wednesday, almost a week after Baldwin fired a prop gun on the set of his film Rust, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.
Read more below:
Alec Baldwin could still face charges for Rust shooting
Asked about the possibility Alec Baldwin will face charges, Sheriff Adan Mendoza said: ‘No one has been ruled out’
Investigators to probe on-set circumstances
Police in New Mexico will probe tensions on the Rust set that led to a walkout hours before, with the sheriff declaring that “there was complacency” towards weapon safety.
Read our developing story:
Police to probe tensions on Rust set that led to walkout hours before
Police in New Mexico will probe tensions on the Rust set that led to a walkout hours before, with the sheriff declaring that “there was complacency” towards weapon safety.
Investigation continues
Authorities say they have recovered a lead projectile believed to have been fired from the gun used in the fatal movie-set shooting.
Testing is being done to determine whether the lead projectile recovered from director Joel Souza’s shoulder was fired from the gun — a long Colt revolver — used by Baldwin. Two other guns seized include a single-action revolver that may have been modified and a plastic prop gun that was described as a revolver.
Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said it’s too early to comment on whether any charges will be filed. He also noted that 500 rounds of ammunition — a mix of blanks, dummy rounds and live rounds — were found while searching the set.
The sheriff would not comment on how the rounds got on set.
Investigators said they will also be following up on reports that there were other incidents involving misfires with guns used on the set.
District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said investigators can’t say whether it was negligence or by whom at this point.
Both the sheriff and district attorney said they will not rush to judgment and that more investigation is needed.
(AP)
Details emerge of events that unfolded on Rust set
Alec Baldwin fired a single bullet which killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and then lodged in the shoulder of directorJoel Souza on the set of the movie Rust, police have confirmed.
While police said they were continuing their investigation, and prosecutors said they had not ruled out the option of bringing charges against anyone, including the 63-year-old star, police said it appeared Baldwin had fired a single round from a .45 Lee handgun.
At a news conference on Wednesday, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said the bullet had been passed to investigators by medical officials who removed it from the shoulder of the injured director.
Read more below:
Alec Baldwin fired ‘single bullet which killed Halyna Hutchins then hit director’
‘No one has been ruled out He was the person who fired the weapon’
How movie prop guns work
Prop guns include both real guns as well as toy guns or defunct weapons. The former are typically used to add an element of authenticity to close-up shots, as pointed out by firearms expert Cameron Brown in an article for American Cinematography magazine.
How prop guns filled with blanks can still fire life-threatening shots
Prop gun vs real gun - the difference explained
What happened and what are the rules about using prop guns on set?
Here is what we know so far about the events of 21 October:
What happened in Alec Baldwin shooting incident that left film crew member dead?
Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins died on set when a gun held by Baldwin misfired. As the industry reels from the tragedy, here’s what we know about the guidelines around weapons in films and the history of accidents in cinema
Details emerge in affidavit
Assistant Director Davis Halls told police that when Rust armourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed “showed him” the gun later used by Mr Baldwin “before continuing rehearsal, he could only remember seeing three rounds,” an affidavit filed on Wednesday in Santa Fe County Magistrate Court, and obtained by The Independent, shows.
Mr Halls “advised he should have checked all of them, but didn’t and couldn’t recall” if Ms Gutierrez-Reed “spun the drum” the legal document stated.
Assistant director tells police he didn’t check all rounds before giving Baldwin gun
The assistant director on the movie Rust has told police that he didn’t check all the rounds in the gun barrel to ensure they were all fake bullets before handing the firearm to actor Alec Baldwin.
Authorities to look into “rumours” and “statements”
Police in New Mexico will probe “tensions” on the Rust set that led to a walkout hours before the fatal shooting of the cinematographer and the wounding of the movie’s director, with the sheriff declaring that “there was complacency” towards weapon safety.
Around half a dozen crew members allegedly walked off the set of the movie on the morning of the shooting to protest working conditions on the low-budget western, according to reports.
Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza was asked about “tensions on the set” and reports of crew members allegedly drinking the night before the accident, which saw actor Alec Baldwin fire what he thought to be an unloaded prop gun, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.
“I wont talk about specifics but we are aware of those rumours, or those statements that have been made, and we are going to do our best to track those down,” he told a Wednesday press conference in New Mexico.
Police to probe ‘tensions’ on Rust set that led to walkout hours before
Investigators believe there were a number of live rounds of ammunition on the New Mexico set
New details emerge, charges still a possibility
New details about the incident emerged on Wednesday during a news conference by Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza and District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies and in an affidavit filed by the local sheriff’s department.
Mendoza also told reporters there was a complacent attitude towards safety on the set.
Mendoza and Carmack-Altwies said that while no charges have been filed, they are not ruling out that possibility.
"All options are on the table. ... No one has been ruled out at this point,” Carmack-Altwies said referring to potential criminal charges.
(Reuters)
Assistant director tells police he didn’t check all rounds before giving Baldwin gun
‘We know there was one live round, as far as we’re concerned, on set,’ sheriff says
Ammunition collected as evidence
Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said that authorities have collected 600 pieces of evidence including three firearms, 500 rounds of ammunition – some believed to be live bullets – and several pieces of clothing and accessories in the ongoing investigation.
Some evidence is being sent to an FBI crime lab for analysis, Mendoza said.
Authorities have the firearm used in the shooting, Mendoza said, and they recovered the bullet from the shoulder of director Joel Souza, who was wounded but later released from the hospital. Mendoza said it appears the same bullet struck Souza and Hutchins.
(Reuters)