The Santa Fe County district attorney said the investigation into the fatal shooting on the set of Rust could take weeks if not months and could result in criminal charges.
Speaking to the New York Times ahead of a planned press conference Wednesday, district attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies says her office has not “ruled out anything” following last week’s fatal on-set shooting of Rust director of photography Halyna Hutchins. “Everything at this point, including criminal charges, is on the table,” she said Tuesday.
Carmack-Altwies confirmed that the investigation is ongoing and told the Times that detectives from the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office are currently focusing on who placed the ammunition in the gun. They are also looking at ballistics, in order to determine the type of round that was in the gun that fired and killed Hutchins. But Carmack-Altwies noted that it will still be some time before charges, if any, are filed.
“It’s probably weeks, if not months, of follow-up investigation that we’re going to need to get to the point of charging,” she said.
Multiple attempts by The Hollywood Reporter for comment from the district attorney’s office were not immediately returned.
The Santa Fe district attorney also clarified that while “prop gun” has been used to describe the firearm that killed Hutchins, the terminology could be misleading. The gun that was used on set was in fact “a legit” working gun and more specifically “an antique-era appropriate gun,” though she provided no further details about the type of firearm.
The shooting took place last Thursday on the film’s Bonanza Creek Ranch set while star and producer Alec Baldwin was rehearsing a scene set near a church involving “cross drawing,” or pointing a revolver at a camera lens, according to warrants obtained by THR on Sunday.
According to one warrant, Rust assistant director Dave Halls grabbed one of three “prop guns,” as the warrant terms them, laid out by the production’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez Reed. Halls then took the gun to Baldwin, who was in full old Western costume inside the church set, and “yelled, ‘cold gun,’ indicating the prop gun did not have any live rounds.”
But when Baldwin discharged the gun, something struck both Hutchins and the film’s director Joel Souza. Hutchins, who was hit in the stomach, was transported to the University of New Mexico Hospital, where she was pronounced dead Thursday. Souza was wounded in the shoulder, and released from the hospital Friday, per Rust actress Frances Fisher, before speaking publicly about the incident for the first time on Saturday.
By Sunday, it was announced in a letter to the crew that production had wrapped “at least until the investigations are complete,” though the producers later said it is expected to be “a “pause rather than an end.”
According to the Albuquerque Journal, during a press conference on Tuesday, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham spoke out about the incident, noting that if the film industry does not act on on-set gun safety measures, the state will.
“My expectation is the industry better step up and identify any number of additional improvements and safeguards,” Lujan Grisham said. “If the industry doesn’t come forward with very specific accountable safeguards, they should expect that we will.”
A statement from IATSE Local 480 obtained by THR on Tuesday expressed the “deepest and most heartfelt condolences to the family and friends” of Hutchins. “Her death should never have happened. Union sets should be safe sets. We mourn collectively with our union and film community over this great loss.”
“We have been greatly disturbed by media reports that the producers employed non-union persons in craft positions and, worse, used them to replace skilled union members who were protesting their working conditions. That is inexcusable,” the statement continued.
The statement concluded with an acknowledgment that they are working to support members impacted by the tragedy and are “cooperating fully with the relevant authorities” as they await the results of the investigation.
IATSE members have been advocating for safer working conditions during their 2021 negotiations cycle for a new Basic Agreement and Area Standards Agreement, the latter of which covers some industry work in New Mexico. IATSE and film and television studios reached a tentative Area Standards Agreement deal on Tuesday, but details about the deal and any potential safety provisions therein were scant.
Source: HollyWood
