There’s no denying Alec Baldwin’s role in on-set shooting tragedy.

By Maureen Callahan

October 26, 2021

The death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins has also been painted as Alec Baldwin’s tragedy.

Really, it’s not. In fact, Alec Baldwin is likely to be held, at least in part, responsible.

“If you’re capable of memorizing 120 pages of dialogue, you can memorize four lines of gun safety,” special-effects and firearms expert Steve Wolf tells The Post.

“If that scene required him to put the gun to his head and pull the trigger, I’m sure he would have taken a look inside the gun. Wouldn’t you?”

As a producer on “Rust,” Baldwin could be held culpable for the cost-cutting, chaos and eventual hire of a young head armorer with just one stint in said job on her résumé — because, according to Deadline, multiple other armorers turned it down over low pay and high stakes, with too many firearms to manage.

“They hired someone who was insufficiently experienced,” Wolf says. “If he’s the producer, the buck stops with him.”

And as a veteran actor who has starred in multiple films involving firearms — “The Departed” and two installments of “Mission: Impossible” come to mind — you would think Baldwin would be extra cautious wielding a gun on set.

“Don’t point guns at people,” is the most elemental rule on sets, Wolf says.

“Don’t point guns at anything you don’t want to put a hole in.”

Retired FBI Agent Bobby Chacon, who works as a writer and consultant in Hollywood, agrees.

If fact, Chacon goes over the four basic rules of guns on sets so often that his actors roll their eyes. He takes this as a sign to keep going, because they’ve heard it all before, they know the rules, and still they listen:

1. Treat EVERY weapon as if it’s loaded, even if you’re told it isn’t.
2. NEVER point a gun at anything you’re not willing to kill or destroy.
3. Never put your finger on the trigger until you are ready to kill or destroy something.
4. Know where your target is and what’s behind it (where possible).

It’s often the bean counters, Chacon tells The Post, who prefer saving money over safety.

On one major network cop show, the line producer — the person responsible for the budget — “would nickel-and-dime me to no end,” Chacon says.

“They were very penny-wise and pound-foolish. Sometimes [they] would try to save my paltry daily fee on days when [actors] were just going have their guns out as opposed to using them.”

Chacon says he was paid $500 a day for this show that cost, “no kidding, $1,041 per minute to shoot.” Each episode was an eight-day production, so if an actor, writer or director had a question for Chacon and he wasn’t there, the 10-minute delay to get Chacon on the phone cost 20 times his day rate.

And Chacon had an experience not unlike what happened on “Rust.”

“I dug my heels in [about being there] on a particular day because the script called for our team to have their guns out and make an arrest,” Chacon recalls

“The line producer literally said something like, ‘We’ll be fine. Our first AD [assistant director] has done a ton of cop shows, so he can show them how to do the arrest.’ I walked away at that point.”

On the day Hutchins was fatally shot on the Santa Fe, NM, set of “Rust,” assistant director David Halls, not the head armorer, handed Baldwin the firearm and yelled, “Cold gun!” — meaning the gun was supposed to be empty, no blanks, nothing.

As for how live ammunition found its way on set, Wolf is speechless.

“It’s against all movie-making protocols,” he says.

This tragedy is not just down to cost-cutting measures or crew fatigue. Wolf says movie sets can be so intimidating, staffed with young crew members who are star-struck or cowed by a demanding director or just thrilled to be working in the industry, that most would never speak up.

“Rust” was a hasty 21-day shoot. Multiple reports say the crew felt dangerous compromises were being made.

“An old wiseass like me would say, ‘I’m not going to compromise safety,’ ” Wolf says, “but most people won’t say that because of fear they’ll be fired.”

Yet on “Rust,” we know seven crew members walked off set the morning Hutchins was killed — and they walked over safety concerns. During production, someone rang the alarm to the unit production manager, texting, “We’ve now had 3 accidental discharges. This is super unsafe.”

Wolf tells The Post that the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office has reached out to him about helping its investigation.

“Everything I find will probably point to negligence,” Wolf says. “Gross negligence, possibly criminal negligence. The armorer didn’t have the experience to command a set. You have a gun, a bullet, someone aiming it, and someone firing it. So it was inevitable if you bring together those ingredients.”

The question isn’t how this could have happened to Halyna Hutchins. The question really is: How could it not?

Natalie’s Commentary:

This is an extremely tough time for Mr. Baldwin and of course his family. It was obviously a mistake on his part not knowing the gun was loaded with real bullets. Anyone in his present state of mind would be so broken and trying not to blame himself/herself for what happened. His wife and children I’m sure will help him during this very difficult time. 

There were huge unprofessional mistakes made by the armorer and assistant director, who didn’t pickup the right gun from three. Why a gun was there loaded with three bullets is for the investigation to find out.

There was pressure, dissatisfaction and real concern including from Ms. Halyna  Hutchinson regarding the safety on the set indicating that there were at least two earlier accidental gun discharges. 

At a rehearsal on the film set Thursday at Bonanza Creek Ranch outside Santa Fe, the gun Baldwin used was one of three that a firearms specialist, or “armorer,” had set on a cart outside the building where a scene was being rehearsed, according to the court records.

Court records indicate that an assistant director, Dave Halls, grabbed a prop gun off a cart and handed it to Baldwin, indicating incorrectly that the weapon didn’t carry live rounds by yelling “cold gun.” When Baldwin pulled the trigger, he unwittingly killed Hutchins and wounded Souza, who was standing behind her inside a wooden, chapel-like building.

—

It was tragic news here in America and around the the world, for friends of the Baldwins and friends and family of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins who died in this shooting accident on a movie set.

This isn’t the first tragedy with a prop gun killing someone on a movie set. Safety precautions have come along way to ensure and protect the lives on a movie set but accidents still happen.

There was word that for some unknown reason there were real bullets in the gun.

There was a shooting scene being filmed of Mr. Baldwin with the Director behind the Cinematographer when the gun was fired. It must have been pointed in their direction not knowing the prop gun contained real bullets.

The movie is a low budget film and Mr. Baldwin was not only the leading actor but the producer. The news reported that some of the filming crew had walked off the set because of unsafe conditions. It hasn’t been reported who was in charge of loading the prop gun and why it was loaded with real bullets. Could it have been someone with ill intentions placing anyone on the set in danger? Or an irresponsible person who made the wrong choice or picked up the wrong gun.

Our hearts and prayers go out to the Hutchins family and the Baldwin family.

The director Joel Souza was injured but treated and released from the hospital. ~ Natalie

Update 11/24/21

Alec Baldwin was reportedly “inconsolable for hours” after allegedly discharging a prop gun on the New Mexico set of his Western film “Rust” in an accidental shooting that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza, a source with knowledge of the matter told People. 

“Everyone knows this was an accident, but he’s absolutely devastated,” the unnamed source said, describing how Baldwin was “hysterical and absolutely inconsolable for hours” after the incident. 

The actor “is canceling other projects,” the source said, and will “take some time to himself and re-center himself” by spending more time with family. 

“This was pretty devastating,” the source told People. “This is how he handles difficult times. Whenever something bad happens, in the short term, he removes himself from [the] public eye.”

Baldwin “is someone who really deeply cares, so he can be very hard on himself,” the source said. “That’s true in general, in situations nowhere near as serious as this. But in this situation, it’s a whole other level because of the loss of life involved.”

Baldwin first publicly addressed the incident in Oct. 22 tweets, writing, “There are no words to convey my shock and sadness regarding the tragic accident that took the life of Halyna Hutchins, a wife, mother and deeply admired colleague of ours.” 

“I’m fully cooperating with the police investigation to address how this tragedy occurred and I am in touch with her husband, offering my support to him and his family,” Baldwin added. “My heart is broken for her husband, their son, and all who knew and loved Halyna.” 

Still no charges have been filed in connection to the fatal shooting. 

Santa Fe-area District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies initially said prosecutors will be reviewing evidence in the shooting and do not know if charges will be filed. Hutchins’ husband Matthew Hutchins posted on social media to mourn his wife’s loss, asking for privacy for their nine-year-old son, Andros, and thanking her friends and mentors at the American Film Institute, who he said “nurtured the success we had only just begun to see flourish.”

Hutchins’ Ukrainian father, Anatoly Androsovych, who recently spoke to The Scottish Sun, is trying to organize travel for his wife, Olga, and daughter, Svetlana, to go to the United States to comfort Andros. He also said he thinks the prop team, not Baldwin, is responsible for his daughter’s death, adding though that it will be her husband who ultimately decides whether or not to pursue lawsuits. 

Disputes in the production of the Western film “Rust” began almost from the start in early October and culminated with seven crew members walking off several hours before Hutchins was killed, according to The Associated Press. The crew members had expressed their discontent with matters that ranged from safety procedures to their housing accommodations, according to one of those who left.

At a rehearsal on the film set Thursday at Bonanza Creek Ranch outside Santa Fe, the gun Baldwin used was one of three that a firearms specialist, or “armorer,” had set on a cart outside the building where a scene was being rehearsed, according to the court records.

Court records indicate that an assistant director, Dave Halls, grabbed a prop gun off a cart and handed it to Baldwin, indicating incorrectly that the weapon didn’t carry live rounds by yelling “cold gun.” When Baldwin pulled the trigger, he unwittingly killed Hutchins and wounded Souza, who was standing behind her inside a wooden, chapel-like building.

Baldwin, 63, who is known for his roles in “30 Rock” and “The Hunt for Red October” and his impression of former President Donald Trump on “Saturday Night Live,” has described the killing as a “tragic accident.” He was a producer of “Rust.”

A 911 call that alerted authorities to the shooting at the Bonanza Creek Ranch outside Santa Fe hints at the panic on the movie set, as detailed in a recording released by the Santa Fe County Regional Emergency Communications Center.

“We had two people accidentally shot on a movie set by a prop gun, we need help immediately,” script supervisor Mamie Mitchell told an emergency dispatcher. “We were rehearsing and it went off, and I ran out, we all ran out.”

The dispatcher asked if the gun was loaded with a real bullet.

“I cannot tell you. We have two injuries,” Mitchell replied. “And this (expletive) AD (assistant director) that yelled at me at lunch, asking about revisions….He’s supposed to check the guns. He’s responsible for what happens on the set.”

The New York Times also reported that there were at least two earlier accidental gun discharges. Guns used in making movies are sometimes real weapons that can fire either bullets or blanks, which are gunpowder charges intended to produce little more than a flash and a bang. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Further Updatate: October 23, 2021

Further Update: October 23, 2021

Further Update October 22, 2021 4:05 eastern

From TheNYPost by Bruce Golding

Photos did show Alec Baldwin’s children and their pet cat leaving NYC home. 

Alec Baldwin’s kids and pet cat were seen leaving their Manhattan home on Friday — after wife Hilaria Baldwin reportedly left earlier amid the trauma of the tragic accident that killed a cinematographer on the set of his latest movie

Photos show a woman in sunglasses shuttling some of the couple’s six children and a cat in a carrier from a vacant storefront to a black Cadillac SUV around the corner from their Greenwich Village apartment.

The kids wrapped their arms and legs around the unidentified woman’s torso and buried their faces against her neck and shoulder as she carried them to the vehicle.

The woman also carried out a cat in a gray carrier.

The couple’s children range in age from 8 to less than 1.

Baldwin, 68, was filming the Western “Rust” outside Santa Fe when he fired a prop gun and fatally shot director of photography Halyna Hutchins on Thursday, according to the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office.

Director Joel Souza, 48, was also struck and wounded by the bullet that reportedly tore through Hutchins’ body.

In a pair of tweets Friday, Baldwin said his “heart is broken,” adding: “There are no words to convey my shock and sadness regarding the tragic accident that took the life of Halyna Hutchins, a wife, mother and deeply admired colleague of ours.

“I’m fully cooperating with the police investigation to address how this tragedy occurred and I am in touch with her husband, offering my support to him and his family,” he wrote

The probe is ongoing and no charges have been filed, according to the sheriff’s office.

Update October 22, 2021

Actor Alec Baldwin publicly addressed the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins for the first time Friday, calling it a “tragedy” and saying he is cooperating with the investigation.

“There are no words to convey my shock and sadness regarding the tragic accident that took the life of Halyna Hutchins, a wife, mother and deeply admired colleague of ours,” he tweeted late Friday morning, a day after he discharged a prop gun during a movie shoot in New Mexico, killing Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza.

“I’m fully cooperating with the police investigation to address how this tragedy occurred and I am in touch with her husband, offering my support to him and his family,” he said. “My heart is broken for her husband, their son, and all who knew and loved Halyna.”

The shooting happened while Baldwin was either filming or rehearsing a scene for “Rust,” an upcoming Western based on a story written by him and Souza. The director’s injuries were not immediately disclosed, but he has already left the hospital.

Hutchins, 42, was the director of photography for the film. Originally from Ukraine, she was considered a rising star in the industry and had recently worked on documentaries as well as the films “Archenemy,” featuring Joe Manganiello, and “Blindfire,” starring Brian Geraghty. Both movies were released last year.

The shooting left Hollywood in shock, with many people questioning how a crew member could be killed with a supposed movie prop.

“I can’t believe this could happen in this day and age… gunfire from a prop gun could kill a crew member? What a horrible tragedy,” Manganiello said in a tweet. “My heart goes out to her family.”

“Sorrow and absolute horror that cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed on set. This should never have happened. Thoughts with her family and friends,” actress Mia Farrow tweeted.

The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office is investigating what kind of projectile was fired and whether anyone should face charges for the shooting.

Movie Accident 2 injured during prop gun mishap on set of Alec Baldwin film ‘Rust‘

From TheNYPost By Kenneth Garge October 21, 2021

Two people were injured, one critically, when a prop gun misfired at the New Mexico movie set of the Alec Baldwin film “Rust,” a report said

The filming location at Bonanza Creek Ranch in Sante Fe was initially sent into lockdown and production was halted following what was characterized by a production spokesperson as an “accident.

“There was an accident today on the New Mexico set of Rust involving the misfire of a prop gun with blanks,” the spokesperson told Deadline.

“Two crew members have been taken to the hospital and are receiving care,” the statement continued.

One of the patients was taken to the University of New Mexico Hospital in critical condition, a hospital staffer told ABC, KOAT reported

“Rust” — a western feature that is also being produced by Baldwin — began filming this month

It wasn’t immediately clear if Baldwin was at the set during Thursday’s incident.

Baldwin plays outlaw Harland Rust, who, while on the run from the law himself, helps bust his 13-year-old grandson out of prison in Kansas after the teen is convicted of murder, according to Deadline

A woman was killed and another person was injured Thursday in an accidental shooting on the set of a new film in New Mexico starring Alec Baldwin, local authorities said.

The Santa Fe County sheriff said deputies responded to an incident at the Bonanza Creek Ranch movie set shortly before 2 p.m. local time after two people were shot. Officials said it appeared a prop gun was discharged on the set of the film “Rust,” hitting two people. A 42-year-old woman was taken to the hospital but died from her injuries. A 42-year-old man was receiving emergency care Thursday night.

“According to investigators it appears that the scene being filmed involved the use of a prop firearm when it was discharged,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. “Detectives are investigating how and what type of projectile was discharged.”

Alec Baldwin shot gun that killed one, injured another on ‘Rust’ movie set

UPDATE: Santa Fe County deputies say actor, Alec Baldwin, shot the prop gun that killed Halyna Hutchins, 42, and injured Joel Souza, 48.

One person was killed in an accident on the movie set of “Rust” in Santa Fe Thursday. 

Santa Fe County deputies say they responded to Bonanza Creek Ranch where the movie was being filmed after receiving a 911 call saying someone had been shot. 

Deputies say two people were shot during filming of a scene using a prop gun.

According to a statement from one of the film’s producers, there was an incident involving the “misfire of a prop gun with blanks.”

Investigators say a 42-year-old was shot and died from her injuries. 

More: TV and movie set mishaps more common than many realize

A 42-year-old man was also shot and is currently receiving emergency care. 

Deputies are investigating how and what type of projectile was discharged from the prop gun. 

“Rust” is a Western movie set in the 1880s, according to IMDb. In it, a long-time fugitive, played by Alec Baldwin, along with his estranged 13-year-old grandson, are on the run from the law.

In addition to Baldwin, the film also stars Jensen Ackles and Travis Fimmel.

More: What is the movie ‘Rust’?

In 2016 a man stabbed his co-worker at this same filming location.

That incident happened in April of 2016 when the victim said he was arguing with Jame Ruelas.

He said Ruelas called him to an empty room and attacked him with a carving knife.

Movie set mishaps may be more common than many realize.

According to an Associated Press investigation from 2016, at least 43 people died on U.S. TV and film sets since 1990. Meanwhile, more than 150 were left with life-altering injuries during that time.

But even then, those incidents were likely undercounted, the AP reported at the time.

And while the misfire on the set of “Rust” is the most recent incident, it’s not the first time a prop gun accidentally fired on a movie set.

Related: Prop gun misfire kills woman on set of Alec Baldwin movie

In 1993, actor Brandon Lee, who was Bruce Lee’s son, was shot and killed on the set of “The Crow” with a prop gun.

Lee’s death garnered worldwide attention and prompted changes on how firearms are treated on sets. Yet it also illustrates the paltry sums companies face after serious accidents. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined the company making the “The Crow” $84,000, but later reduced the penalty to $55,000.

“The Crow” grossed more than $50 million.