Among the videos collected for the purposes of the investigation into the death of Halyna Hutchins released this week by the Santa Fe police is the horrific one of the moment actor Alec Baldwin, who originally held the gun of the drama, learns that the young director of photography has succumbed to her injury.
“I have very bad news for you,” a police officer told the actor. “What?” he replies. “She didn’t make it,” she announced. At these terrible words, the actor says “no” then puts his hand in front of his mouth and freezes for almost thirty seconds, totally in shock.
The policewoman tells him that for the time being the director Joel Souza, also injured during the tragedy, is still in the hospital. Baldwin puts her hand on his chest as the policewoman repeats to him that Ms Hutchins ‘didn’t manage to get out of it’, before adding: ‘I didn’t want you to find out when you got out of here. » Then she asks him if there’s anything she can do for him, if he wants a glass of water or something, to which Alec Baldwin simply replies that he wants to “phone his wife.” He then walks out of the office holding his forehead. The photo of him haggard in a parking lot, widely distributed a few hours after the tragedy, was taken when he telephoned his wife, who remained in New York with their children.
In the video below, which is therefore one of the many documents collected by the police over the past six months (videos, photos and more than 200 pages of depositions), we can discover the entirety of the first interrogation of the ‘actor. The announcement made to him of the death of Halyna Hutchins comes at approximately 1h11 minutes:
Alec Baldwin claims he was unaware that the gun in his hand contained live ammunition. He also says he didn’t pull the trigger when the shot went off.
Production already doomed
Six months after the events, the investigation is continuing and the police are in particular trying to find out how live ammunition could have been found on the set, which is in theory strictly prohibited.
She is very interested in text messages that the armorer of the film Rust, who handed the weapon to the actor before the tragedy and said he regretted “not having checked it enough”, had exchanged with a supplier some time before filming begins. The conversation was precisely about the use of live ammunition during filming.
No arrests have yet been made in this case, but criminal proceedings are not excluded in the event that responsibilities are established.
Leading the investigation, Sheriff Mendoza told NBC: “There was complacency on set, there was disorganization and a degree of negligence, did it get to a criminal level, it will depend on the district attorney.”
An administrative investigation carried out in parallel by the authorities of New Mexico has also already sentenced the producers to pay 136,793 dollars (maximum amount provided for by law), for not having respected the basic safety rules.