Investigation into the shooting of Alec Baldwin in the recording of “Rust” focuses on the safekeeping of the weapon

The police investigation into the deadly shooting with a prop pistol fired by Alec Baldwin During a shoot on Saturday he focused on the specialist in charge of the weapon and the assistant director who gave it to the American actor.

The cinematographer of Ukrainian origin Halyna Hutchins, 42, was hit in the chest and died shortly after the incident in New Mexico on Thursday, while the director Joel Souza, 48, who was behind her, was injured, hospitalized and released.

The police questioned Baldwin, who voluntarily cooperated, but has not brought charges against him.

The pistol, which must have been loaded with a blank cartridge, instead had a loaded cartridge, according to the affidavit filed by the sheriff’s office to obtain a search warrant, local media reported.

The affidavit ensures that the deputy director Dave Halls, identified as the man who handed the gun to Baldwinhe yelled “cold weapon” as he did so. It is the language of the industry to indicate that a weapon has only one bullet.

Police are focusing on the exact sequence of events that brought live ammunition onto the set of Rust, the “western” set in the 19th century.

On the phone call to the 911 emergency number immediately after the shooting, you could hear the shock and anger felt on set.

“We have two people who were accidentally shot with a prop pistol – we need help right away,” says the person calling a police officer.

“Was it loaded with a real bullet?” Asks the operator. “No … I can’t tell you,” responds the caller. “This son of a bitch is supposed to check guns, he’s responsible for what happens on set.”

Baldwin He said on Friday he was heartbroken and was fully cooperating with the investigation into “how this tragedy happened.”

He retweeted a story from the specialized magazine Variety entitled “A Alec Baldwin They told him the prop gun was safe prior to the fatal shooting, according to an affidavit. “

The pistol used, and two others, were provided by the film’s weapons master, Hannah Gutiérrez-Reed, 24 years old and daughter of Thell ReedLongtime gunsmith of the film industry.

In a September podcast, the young Gutierrez-Reed said she had some trepidation about taking on the role of head gunsmith for the first time in the previous movie she worked on, “The Old Way.”

“I was very nervous at first and almost didn’t take the job because I wasn’t sure I was ready,” she said on the “Voices of the West” podcast, before adding: “But doing it, everything went very well.”