Alec Baldwin retweeted an article shared by the New York Times on Wednesday that isolates Rust assistant director Dave Halls, who reportedly told a detective that he should have inspected each round in the chamber of the gun he gave to Baldwin on the film set before Baldwin fatally wounded cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
Last week, Baldwin was rehearsing with a gun that Halls told him did not contain live ammunition. The actor later pulled the trigger, fatally shooting Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.
“Before he handed a revolver that he had declared ‘cold’ to Alec Baldwin on the set of the film ‘Rust,’ Dave Halls, an assistant director, told a detective he should have inspected each round in each chamber, according to an affidavit. But he did not,” read the New York Times tweet retweeted by Baldwin.
Before he handed a revolver that he had declared “cold” to Alec Baldwin on the set of the film “Rust,” Dave Halls, an assistant director, told a detective he should have inspected each round in each chamber, according to an affidavit. But he did not. https://t.co/flCONhaEqO
— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 27, 2021
“He [Halls] advised he should have checked all of them, but didn’t,” read an affidavit signed by Detective Alexandria Hancock of the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s office, according to the New York Times report.
On Saturday, two days after the fatal shooting, the actor tweeted a Variety article with the headline, “Alec Baldwin Was Told Prop Gun Was Safe Before Fatal Shooting, Affidavit Says” — another story honing in on Halls.
— AlecBaldwin(HABF) (@AlecBaldwin) October 23, 2021
The firearm Baldwin used was one of three that the film’s 24-year-old head armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed had set on a cart outside a church where a scene was being rehearsed.
The gun was later picked up by Halls, who brought it to Baldwin and informed the actor it was a “cold gun” — meaning the firearm didn’t have any live rounds in it.
Gutierrez-Reed, who had very recently begun working as a head armorer, told a detective that “no live ammo is ever kept on set,” and that on the day of the shooting, she had checked blank rounds, and ensured they were not “hot,” reports NYT.
Halls told a detective that he checks gun barrels for obstructions, and “most of the time there is no live fire.”
“She [Gutierrez-Reed] opens the hatch and spins the drum, and I say ‘cold gun on set,'” Halls explained to Detective Hancock, adding that when the armorer showed him the gun before the fatal shooting, he only remembered seeing three rounds, and could not recall if she had “spun the drum.”
Actors and crew members on set on of the movie “Rust.” Insider Edition/Serge Svetnoy/YouTube
After the shooting, Halls said he picked up the gun and brought it to Gutierrez-Reed, who then opened it, and he could see “at least four dummy casings with the holes on the side, and one without the hole.” Dummy rounds — or blanks — are sometimes identified by a hole on the side.
Both Halls and Gutierrez-Reed have faced heavy scrutiny over the past week, as they handled the firearm before it was given to Baldwin.
It has been reported that Halls was fired from a previous job after a gun went off on a set and wounded a member of the film crew, and that Gutierrez-Reed was the subject of numerous complaints while handling weapons on the set of The Old Way — her first time as an armorer on a film set — just two months earlier.
Watch below:
On Wednesday, Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies told NBC News’ Tom Llamas that actor Alec Baldwin “pulled the trigger,” which doesn’t mean that charges will be filed against him, but it also “doesn’t mean they won’t.”holly
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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