Dave Halls, according to the chain NBC News, has a negative reputation for ignoring safety practices, had been “fired from the set of ‘Freedom’s Path’ in 2019 after a member of the crew suffered a minor injury when a weapon unexpectedly went off,” he told the AFP a producer of that film that has not yet been released.
“Halls was immediately removed from the set after the prop gun was fired. The production did not return to film until Dave was off location. An incident report was collected at that time,” added the producer of “Freedom’s Path”.
Authorities are investigating the case, for which no one has been arrested or charged. But the focus is on those who tampered with the gun that killed Hutchins.
According to the testimonies collected in affidavits by the investigators, Dave Halls, the assistant director, was the one who handed the gun to Baldwin warning that it was “cold”, movie jargon to say that a gun is unloaded.
However, the director of the film Joel Souza He said in his statement that he was “not sure” whether the weapon had been rechecked after a team lunch break.
Souza explained that Baldwin was rehearsing a scene in which he pointed a prop pistol at the camera lens, according to affidavits released by the Santa Fe sheriff’s department, in charge of the investigations.
Standing behind Hutchins when the gun was fired, Souza was shot in the shoulder, though discharged the same day. He said he heard something that “sounded like a whip and then a loud bang,” says the police document that AFP had access to.
After the shooting, Hutchins “grabbed her abdomen” and said she couldn’t feel her legs, the director testified, adding that she “started to stumble backward” and was “helped to fall to the ground.”
The cameraman Reid Russell, who was standing next to Souza and Hutchins, said Baldwin was “trying to explain how he was going to draw the gun and where his arm would be when he drew the gun.”
“Reid was not sure why the gun was detonated and only remembered the loud noise,” the affidavit says.
The shot was not filmed because the crew was preparing the scene, the cameraman said.
The chief of arms of the shoot, Hannah Gutiérrez-Reed, 24, was the one who prepared the weapon and placed it in a cart with two other weapons. After the shot, he guarded the pistol, collected the spent casings and handed them over to the police.
The film’s electrical chief said he held Hutchins in his arms as he died, in an enraged Facebook post arguing that the shooting was the result of “negligence and lack of professionalism.”
“There is no way a 24-year-old is a professional gunman,” she wrote. Serge Svetnoy, adding that “professionals are people who have spent years on the sets, who know this work from A to Z”.
“Rust” it was just Gutierrez-Reed’s second film as chief of arms. She is the daughter of the Hollywood veteran in the sector, Thell Reed, whose titles include “Django Unchained”. Gutierrez-Reed deleted their profiles on social networks.
It is the responsibility of the chief of arms to deliver and keep weapons safe on set. But the entertainment portal The Wrap reported on Monday that members of the “Rust” they used the weapons hours before the incident.
“Several members of the team took the prop weapons from the set of the western ‘Rust’ in New Mexico, including the one that killed Hutchins, to practice target shooting with real bullets in beer cans,” the portal said, citing anonymous sources.
Producers of “Rust” They have not responded to AFP’s requests for comment.
Meanwhile, Alec Baldwin’s wife went to the networks to express her regret for what happened.
“My heart goes out to Halyna. Her husband. Her son. Her family and loved ones. And my Alec. It is said that ‘there are no words’ because it is impossible to express the shock and pain of such a tragic incident. Heart broken. Loss . Support, “he wrote Hilaria Baldwin.
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