A harrowing moment. New video footage shows Alec Baldwin receiving the news that Halyna Hutchins died after the shooting on the Rust set last year.
The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office recently released all files related to their investigation of the Rust incident, six months after the shooting occurred in October 2021. In one clip obtained by Us Weekly, the 30 Rock alum, 64, is sitting in a room with two investigators when they tell him that Hutchins died from the injuries she sustained after being hit when a prop gun misfired.
“I do have some very unfortunate news to tell you,” one of the investigators tells the actor. “She didn’t make it.”
Baldwin replies, “No!” and covers his mouth with his hand, seemingly in shock. The team then tells the New York native that director Joel Souza is still recovering, adding that they didn’t want Baldwin to hear the news secondhand.
In another video, the Emmy winner explains what happened when the gun misfired. “I take the gun out and as the barrel clears, I turn and cock the gun and the gun goes off,” he tells investigators.
Additional footage also shows Baldwin practicing with the gun before the misfire. Authorities previously said that the Match Game host was rehearsing just before the weapon went off, noting that the move required him to point the gun at the camera.
The Pearl Harbor star, who has not been charged with a crime, has denied that he was responsible for the prop gun misfire that led to Hutchins’ death. “I didn’t pull the trigger,” said during an interview with ABC News in December 2021. “Someone is responsible for what happened, and I can’t say who that is, but I know it’s not me.”
The cinematographer’s husband, Matt Hutchins, said that he was outraged when he heard Baldwin’s statements about not feeling culpable for his late wife’s death. “I was just so angry to see him talk about her death so publicly in such a detailed way and then to not accept any responsibility after having just described killing her,” he explained during a February interview on the Today show.
That same month, Matt and his family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Baldwin and other individuals involved in the Rust production. In court documents obtained by Us, lawyers claimed that the Oscar nominee and other crew members “failed to perform industry standard safety checks” for the use of guns on set and accused the production of “cutting corners” on safety measures.
“We’re used to people coming in from out of town to play cowboy who don’t know how to use guns,” attorney Randi McGinn said during a press conference in February. “You don’t hand somebody a gun until you give them safety training. … No one should ever die with a real gun on a make-believe movie set.”
