Hutchins, Halyna (1979-2021)

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      ‘Rust’ Investigators Release Crime Scene Photos, Await Key Evidence

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      The criminal investigation of Alec Baldwin’s fatal shooting of a cinematographer on a film set cannot be completed without key ballistics and other evidence, the Santa Fe County sheriff said.The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office released silent footage of Alec Baldwin practicing a scene with a revolver on the set of the Western before accidentally shooting and killing the film’s cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins.Six months after Alec Baldwin fatally shot a cinematographer on the set of the movie “Rust,” raising questions about who was culpable and how live ammunition got onto the set, the Santa Fe County sheriff’s office said Monday it still lacked key pieces of evidence, including ballistics analysis, that it said it needed to complete its criminal investigation.The sheriff’s office discussed the wait for evidence as it took the step of releasing a trove of files relating to the “Rust” investigation, including witness interviews; lapel and dash camera footage; crime scene photos; text messages between members of the crew in the days before and after the shooting; and videos of Mr. Baldwin practicing with the gun in the church where the deadly shooting occurred.The office has been investigating the death of the cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, 42, who was shot and killed in New Mexico on Oct. 21 during the rehearsal for a scene that required Mr. Baldwin to draw a replica old-fashioned revolver from a shoulder holster that he had been told contained no live ammunition.The gun went off, discharging a bullet that killed Ms. Hutchins and injured Joel Souza, the film’s director. Since then, the sheriff’s office in Santa Fe has been gathering evidence and investigating the circumstances surrounding the shooting.The files released Monday included new details about the case, including a report of a phone call that one investigator, Detective Alexandria Hancock, had on Nov. 3 with Mr. Baldwin. Mr. Baldwin said that he had pulled the hammer of the gun about three-quarters of the way back and then let the hammer go, at which point the gun discharged, the report said. Mr. Baldwin told Detective Hancock that his finger had been on the trigger but that he did not pull the trigger, it said. Detective Hancock wrote that she tried to explain to him that if his “finger was on the trigger, and if he was pulling the hammer back with his thumb, his index finger may have still had enough pressure on the trigger for him to depress it.” She added that “Alec advised he never tries to pull the trigger on a gun unless they are rolling the camera.”But as it released the new materials, the sheriff’s office said it still lacked important building blocks of its investigation to be able to pass the case to the Santa Fe County district attorney for review.The Santa Fe County sheriff’s office released photos from its investigation of the fatal shooting of the cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the film “Rust.” Santa Fe County Sheriff’s OfficeSheriff Adan Mendoza said in a statement that “various components of the investigation remain outstanding,” including firearm and ballistic forensics from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, DNA and latent fingerprint analysis, a report from the New Mexico Medical Examiner’s office and the analysis of Mr. Baldwin’s phone data, which was extracted by investigators in Suffolk County, N.Y.“Once these investigative components are provided to the sheriff’s office, we will be able to complete the investigation to forward it to the Santa Fe district attorney for review,” Sheriff Mendoza said in a statement issued by his office.Mary Carmack-Altwies, the Santa Fe County district attorney, said in a statement on Monday that although investigators have sent over a portion of their inquiry to her office, detectives cannot send over a completed investigation until they receive certain reports.“Once we receive the completed investigation and conduct a thorough and deliberate review of all evidence, a criminal charging decision will be made,” Ms. Carmack-Altwies said in the statement.The University of New Mexico, where Ms. Hutchins’s autopsy is being performed, is not yet finished with its report, said a spokesman, Mark Rudi. The shooting took place on the set of a church.via Santa Fe County Sheriff’s OfficeA spokesman for the sheriff’s office, Juan Rios, said that the investigation was not taking longer than normal for what was “a complicated and convoluted case.”He said the office had decided to release the files in bulk because of multiple requests from the media, and from attorneys involved with the case, and because the office wanted to show what was still outstanding. “This is an update,” he said. “We wanted to identify what remains.”The F.B.I.’s national press office declined to comment regarding the time it was taking to complete its firearm and ballistic investigation, and directed inquiries to local law enforcement officials. Mr. Rios said that investigators in Suffolk County had yet to provide the New Mexico investigators with information from Mr. Baldwin’s phone.Understand What Happened on the Set of ‘Rust’Card 1 of 6A fatal shooting. More

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      Alec Baldwin Seeks to Avoid Liability in Fatal ‘Rust’ Shooting

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      In an arbitration demand against his fellow producers on the film, he denied culpability in the killing of a cinematographer and said he should not be held financially responsible.Alec Baldwin gave his most detailed account yet of fatally shooting a cinematographer on the set of the film “Rust” last year in an arbitration demand that his lawyers filed Friday against his fellow producers, claiming that his contract protected him from financial responsibility in her death and seeking coverage of his legal fees.Mr. Baldwin has been named in several lawsuits seeking damages since he shot and killed the cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, on Oct. 21 in New Mexico while practicing for a scene that required him to draw a gun. The filing said that he was not responsible for her death, since he had been assured that the gun did not contain any live ammunition and because he was not responsible for checking the ammunition or for firearm safety on the set.The filing provided new details of Mr. Baldwin’s role as a producer of “Rust,” a production some former crew members claimed in lawsuits had sacrificed safety by cutting costs. While Mr. Baldwin was involved in creative matters, the filing said, others had authority over hiring and budgets. Mr. Baldwin was to be paid $250,000 to star in the movie and act as a producer, it said, but he gave back $100,000 as an “investment” in the film.And the filing contained text messages that Mr. Baldwin had exchanged with Matthew Hutchins, the widower of the slain cinematographer, which showed how their relationship had deteriorated over time — from mutual expressions of condolence and support in the immediate aftermath of the shooting to the pointed wrongful-death lawsuit Mr. Hutchins filed against Mr. Baldwin this year. Brian Panish, a lawyer for Mr. Hutchins, said in a statement that Mr. Baldwin was trying to avoid accountability for his “reckless actions.” The filing provided a vivid account of the fatal shooting on the New Mexico film set, which took place after lunch as Mr. Baldwin rehearsed a scene inside a church in which his character, Harland Rust, is cornered and draws his gun.“Rust’s Colt COCKED quietly now …” the filing quotes the direction in the script, as his pursuers approach. Then, shortly after that: “Colts EXPLODING.”Ms. Hutchins told Mr. Baldwin how to position the gun, the filing said.“She directed Baldwin to hold the gun higher, to a point where it was directed toward her,” it said. “She was looking carefully at the monitor and then at Baldwin, and then back again, as she gave these instructions. In giving and following these instructions, Hutchins and Baldwin shared a core, vital belief: that the gun was ‘cold’ and contained no live rounds.”Mr. Baldwin then asked Ms. Hutchins if she wanted him to pull back the hammer, as the script instructed, and she said yes, the filing said.“Baldwin then pulled back the hammer, but not far enough to actually cock the gun,” it said. “When Baldwin let go of the hammer, the gun went off.”It went on to describe the confusion and horror after the shooting, as Ms. Hutchins was flown by helicopter to a hospital, where she was later pronounced dead. It was later, at the end of his interview with the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office, that Mr. Baldwin was shown a photograph of the projectile that had passed through Ms. Hutchins and then wounded the film’s director, Joel Souza, the filing said.What Happened on the Set of ‘Rust’What We Know: A gun that was being used as a prop by the actor Alec Baldwin on the set of the movie “Rust” went off, killing the film’s director of photography and wounding the director.Remembering the Victim: Halyna Hutchins was the movie’s director of cinematography.Baldwin’s Account: Mr. Baldwin spoke of the incident in an emotional ABC News interview, insisting he was not to blame in the fatal shooting.The Family Sues: Ms. Hutchins’s family has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in New Mexico against crew members and producers.Denying Culpability: Mr. Baldwin, who has been named in the suit, has claimed that his contract protects him from financial responsibility in the death.“Baldwin recognized the object as a live bullet, and he finally began to comprehend what had transpired on the set of ‘Rust’ that day,” it said. “He was shocked.”In the filing, Baldwin’s lawyer, Luke Nikas, says a clause Mr. Baldwin and his company had signed in his contract with Rust Movie Productions L.L.C. means he bears no financial responsibility for legal fees or claims arising out of the death. The filing, with the JAMS private arbitration service, seeks to enforce the clause. The document names Rust Movie Productions L.L.C. and Ryan Smith, one of the other producers, as the respondents in the claim.“Someone is culpable for chambering the live round that led to this horrific tragedy, and it is someone other than Baldwin,” Mr. Nikas wrote in the claim, portraying Mr. Baldwin as a victim who trusted others to do their jobs and is haunted by Ms. Hutchins’s death. “This is a rare instance when the system broke down, and someone should be held legally culpable for the tragic consequences. That person is not Alec Baldwin.”Representatives of Rust Movie Productions L.L.C. and a lawyer for Mr. Smith did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Mr. Nikas described in the claim how, in the weeks after the fatal shooting, Mr. Baldwin had sought to persuade the cast and crew of “Rust” to finish the film to honor Ms. Hutchins, outlining a plan in which an insurance payout and the film’s profits would go to a settlement for Mr. Hutchins and the couple’s 9-year-old son.Shortly after the shooting, the filing said, Mr. Baldwin had breakfast in Santa Fe with Mr. Hutchins and his son. At the meeting, the filing said, “Hutchins hugged Baldwin and told him, ‘I guess we’re going to go through this together.’” Mr. Baldwin denied responsibility for the shooting in an ABC News interview in December with George Stephanopoulos. Matthew Hutchins, the widower of the slain cinematographer, would later say that the interview had made him “angry.”Jeff Neira/ABC via Getty ImagesBut their relationship, which continued through a series of texts and calls, broke down in the aftermath of a television interview Mr. Baldwin gave in December in which he denied responsibility for Ms. Hutchins’s death; Mr. Hutchins later filed a lawsuit against Mr. Baldwin and followed it by giving his own television interview, on NBC’s “Today” show in February, in which he described being angered by Mr. Baldwin’s deflection of blame. Although a number of crew members have described the set as unsafe, and several quit shortly before the fatal shooting, the filing said that Mr. Baldwin had not heard about or observed any safety problems on the set. In the filing, Mr. Baldwin sought to rebut several claims that Mr. Hutchins and some “Rust” crew members had made in lawsuits and in comments to the news media.Two lawsuits filed by crew members have claimed that Mr. Baldwin should have checked that the gun was safe to handle, even after he had received an assurance from the film’s first assistant director that it was.But the new filing said that during firearm training for the film, the movie’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, had told Mr. Baldwin that “it was her job to check the gun — not his.” That instruction was similar to what he had been told before, it said. (Asked for comment, a lawyer for Ms. Gutierrez-Reed said he was reviewing the filing.)“An actor cannot rule that a gun is safe,” the filing said. “That is the responsibility of other people on the set.”And while a lawsuit filed by Serge Svetnoy, the film’s gaffer, claimed that the movie’s producers had “declined requests for weapons training days,” and Ms. Gutierrez-Reed said that Mr. Baldwin had failed to attend “cross draw” training, Mr. Baldwin’s filing says that he had inquired about lessons about a month before he showed up on set and that he had training once he had arrived.The demand also claims that Mamie Mitchell, the script supervisor, had told Mr. Baldwin shortly after the fatal shooting, “You realize you’re not responsible for any of what happened in there, don’t you?” Ms. Mitchell is now suing Mr. Baldwin and other producers, blaming him for failing to check whether the gun he was handling was loaded. A lawyer for Ms. Mitchell, Gloria Allred, said in a statement, “Whatever Ms. Mitchell said immediately after the shooting when she was in a state of shock, and whatever Mr. Baldwin said immediately after the shooting, will be testified to at the trial in our civil case.” She said that the filing was “simply one more attempt by Mr. Baldwin to avoid responsibility for what he did.”In the filing, Mr. Baldwin and his lawyer go so far as to publish private text correspondence between Mr. Baldwin and Mr. Hutchins. The texts show Mr. Baldwin checking whether Mr. Hutchins still wanted to continue their conversations given the possible legal sensitivities, and Mr. Hutchins agreeing to continue communicating despite, according to the texts, the likely wishes of his legal advisers and press representative.Mr. Panish, the lawyer for Mr. Hutchins, called the inclusion of personal texts “irrelevant.”“Baldwin’s disclosure of personal texts with Matt Hutchins is irrelevant to his demand for arbitration and fails to demonstrate anything other than Hutchins’ dignity in his engagement with Baldwin,” he said in the statement. “It is shameful that Baldwin claims Hutchins’ actions in filing a wrongful-death lawsuit derailed the completion of ‘Rust.’ The only action that ended the film’s production was Baldwin’s killing of Halyna Hutchins.”The filing notes that Mr. Baldwin spoke at a memorial for Ms. Hutchins and that later Mr. Hutchins had shared a photograph of his son with Mr. Baldwin.Later, Mr. Hutchins filed a lawsuit against Mr. Baldwin, claiming that he had “recklessly shot and killed Halyna Hutchins on the set.” In an interview on NBC’s “Today” show, he said it was “absurd” for Mr. Baldwin to deny responsibility.When the family of Ms. Hutchins, left, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Mr. Baldwin, they showed an animated re-creation of their version of the shooting.Chris Pizzello/Associated Press“Before Hutchins’s appearance on the ‘Today’ show, his interactions with Baldwin had only been polite, collaborative, and, at times, even warm,” Mr. Baldwin’s filing said.In the NBC interview, Mr. Hutchins spoke in emotional terms about seeing Mr. Baldwin discuss the shooting on television. “I was just so angry to see him talk about her death so publicly in such a detailed way,” Mr. Hutchins said in the NBC interview, “and then to not accept any responsibility after having just described killing her.”Nicole Sperling contributed reporting. 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      Alec Baldwin and ‘Rust’ Producers Sued for Halyna Hutchins’s Death

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      The suit charges that Baldwin “recklessly shot and killed Halyna Hutchins on the set” and that the production’s “aggressive cost-cutting” had endangered the crew.The suit, filed by the family of Halyna Hutchins, the film’s cinematographer who was fatally shot by Mr. Baldwin on the set, accused him and other defendants of reckless conduct and dangerous cost-cutting measures.Swen Studios/Via ReutersThe family of Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer fatally shot by Alec Baldwin on the set of the movie “Rust” last year, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit on Tuesday in New Mexico against crew members and producers, including Mr. Baldwin.The suit, filed by Ms. Hutchins’s widower, Matthew Hutchins; her 9-year-old son; and the personal representative of Ms. Hutchins’s estate, accused Mr. Baldwin and the other defendants of reckless conduct and cost-cutting measures that endangered the crew, including failing to follow basic industry standard safety checks and gun safety rules.“Halyna Hutchins deserved to live, and the Defendants had the power to prevent her death if they had only held sacrosanct their duty to protect the safety of every individual on a set where firearms were present,” the lawsuit said, “instead of cutting corners on safety procedures where human lives were at stake, rushing to stay on schedule and ignoring numerous complaints of safety violations.”Ms. Hutchins, 42, was shot on Oct. 21 while the production was lining up camera angles for a scene in which Mr. Baldwin draws an old-fashioned revolver from a shoulder holster. Shortly before the gun went off, discharging a bullet that killed Ms. Hutchins and injured Joel Souza, the film’s director, the crew had been told that the revolver did not contain live ammunition and was safe to handle.The lawsuit said Mr. Baldwin “recklessly shot and killed Halyna Hutchins on the set.” Mr. Baldwin has said in the past that he was not to blame for her death. “Someone put a live bullet in a gun, a bullet that wasn’t even supposed to be on the property,” Mr. Baldwin said in an ABC television interview in December. “Someone is ​responsible for what happened, and I can’t say who that is, but I know it’s not me.”.css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-3btd0c{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.375rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-3btd0c{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-3btd0c strong{font-weight:600;}.css-3btd0c em{font-style:italic;}.css-1kpebx{margin:0 auto;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-1kpebx{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.625rem;}@media (min-width:740px){#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-1kpebx{font-size:1.6875rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}@media (min-width:740px){.css-1kpebx{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-1gtxqqv{margin-bottom:0;}.css-19zsuqr{display:block;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}.css-12vbvwq{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-12vbvwq{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-12vbvwq:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-12vbvwq{border:none;padding:10px 0 0;border-top:2px solid #121212;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-qjk116{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-qjk116 strong{font-weight:700;}.css-qjk116 em{font-style:italic;}.css-qjk116 a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-thickness:1px;text-decoration-thickness:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:visited{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}Aaron Dyer, a lawyer for Mr. Baldwin and other “Rust” producers, said in a statement that “any claim that Alec was reckless is entirely false,” arguing that Mr. Baldwin and other members of the cast and crew were relying on professionals tasked specifically with checking firearms.“Actors should be able to rely on armorers and prop department professionals, as well as assistant directors, rather than deciding on their own when a gun is safe to use,” the statement said.He noted that “everyone’s hearts and thoughts remain with Halyna’s family as they continue to process this unspeakable tragedy.”At a news conference, lawyers for Mr. Hutchins played a video that used animation to recreate what they say happened on the day of the shooting, based on interviews with crew members and at one point including Mr. Baldwin’s comments from the ABC interview.The lawsuit said that the defendants should not have allowed live ammunition onto the set, that Mr. Baldwin should not have pointed a gun at anyone, and accused the production of “aggressive cost-cutting” that it said had “jeopardized and endangered the safety of the cast and crew.” The suit claimed that the producers had hired an “inexperienced” and “unqualified” armorer, and that members of the production had ignored earlier firearms discharges on the set that had led to complaints about a lack of safety.Brian Panish, a lawyer for Mr. Hutchins, said at a news conference in Los Angeles: “There are many people culpable, but Mr. Baldwin was the person holding the weapon that, but for him shooting it, she would not have died. So clearly he has a significant portion of the liability, but there are others.”Last month, lawyers for the Hutchins family indicated that they were contemplating a lawsuit when they asked a court to appoint a representative in New Mexico for Ms. Hutchins’s estate. Under New Mexico law, half of any proceeds from the lawsuit would go to Mr. Hutchins and half would go to her son.Ms. Hutchins was a rising cinematographer from Ukraine; friends and colleagues described her as fiercely dedicated to the art of filmmaking.It remains unclear why live bullets were on the film set and how one of them got into the gun that Mr. Baldwin was handling. The sheriff’s office in Santa Fe has been investigating that question since the fatal shooting, but officials have made no new public disclosures about the inquiry since last month, when Mr. Baldwin turned his cellphone over to the authorities.Several other lawsuits have been filed in relation to the shooting. Two crew members filed separate lawsuits in California, alleging that cost-cutting measures by the production contributed to lax adherence to safety protocols and that Mr. Baldwin should have checked that the gun was safe to handle. Lawyers for Mr. Baldwin and other producers behind “Rust” filed a motion seeking to dismiss one of the lawsuits, arguing that Mr. Baldwin could not have intentionally shot a live bullet from the gun because he had been told it was “cold,” meaning it did not contain any live bullets.Mr. Baldwin has denied responsibility in the shooting, saying in the television interview last year that Ms. Hutchins was instructing him on where to point the gun when it discharged. He said he did not pull the trigger, suggesting that it could have been set off when he pulled back the hammer.The lawsuit accused him and others of not properly following safety protocols. Other defendants include Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the film’s armorer, who the lawsuit accuses of being unqualified for the job; Dave Halls, the first assistant director, who told an investigator that he did not check all of the rounds in the gun before handing it to Mr. Baldwin; and Seth Kenney, a supplier of guns and ammunition for the film.Jason Bowles, a lawyer for Ms. Gutierrez-Reed, said she inspected the gun before handing it over to Mr. Halls that day and asked that she be called back to recheck it later, but the production did not do so. Mr. Kenney and a lawyer for Mr. Halls did not immediately respond to requests for comment.“Had Defendant Baldwin, the Producers, and the Rust Production Companies taken adequate precautions to ensure firearm safety on the set of Rust or if basic firearm safety rules had been followed on the set of Rust on Oct. 21, 2021,” the lawsuit said, “Halyna Hutchins would be alive and well, hugging her husband and nine-year old son.” More

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      Family of Slain ‘Rust’ Cinematographer Weighs Wrongful-Death Lawsuit

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      Lawyers for the family of Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer fatally shot by Alec Baldwin on the set of the movie “Rust” last year, filed a petition this week to appoint a representative for Hutchins’s estate who will consider whether to file a wrongful-death lawsuit.Ms. Hutchins was killed when the old-fashioned revolver Mr. Baldwin was practicing with on the film set in New Mexico, which he had been told did not contain live ammunition, fired a live bullet, hitting her and the movie’s director, Joel Souza, who survived.According to the petition, which was filed in state court in New Mexico on Wednesday, lawyers for Ms. Hutchins’s widower and son asked the court to appoint Kristina Martinez, a lawyer in Santa Fe, to represent the cinematographer’s estate “solely for the purpose of investigating and pursuing a lawsuit under the New Mexico Wrongful Death Act.” The court filing did not specify who would be named as a defendant should a lawsuit be filed.Ms. Hutchins’s widower, Matthew Hutchins, and her 9-year-old son both support the petition to name a representative of Ms. Hutchins’s estate, the filing said.Randi McGinn, a lawyer representing the Hutchinses, said the process of appointing a representative was specific to a state law in New Mexico. Under the statute, any money granted in the lawsuit would be split between Mr. Hutchins and his son, she said.Ms. Hutchins, who was 42 and originally from Ukraine, was an up-and-coming cinematographer whom friends described as talented, spirited and deeply committed to her work.In the aftermath of the deadly shooting on Oct. 21, several members of the film’s crew have filed lawsuits against Mr. Baldwin and others associated with the production. Mr. Baldwin, who was starring in the western and was also a producer on it, asserted in a television interview that he was not responsible for the fatal shooting and said that he had not pulled the trigger, suggesting that the gun could have gone off after he pulled back the hammer. His lawyers filed a motion on Monday calling for a lawsuit filed against him by the film’s script supervisor, Mamie Mitchell, to be dismissed.Officials in New Mexico are still examining how a live bullet got on set and then into the gun that Mr. Baldwin was practicing with and whether anyone should be held criminally responsible. More

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      Alec Baldwin Seeks Dismissal of ‘Rust’ Lawsuit

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      Lawyers for the actor Alec Baldwin and other producers behind the film “Rust” filed a motion on Monday seeking to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the movie’s script supervisor, who was feet away from the actor on the movie set in New Mexico when he fatally shot a cinematographer.The script supervisor, Mamie Mitchell, said in her lawsuit, filed last year, that she was standing nearby when the gun fired a live bullet that killed the cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, and wounded the film’s director, Joel Souza. Mitchell then ran out of the wooden church set that had been the backdrop for the scene and called 911.The lawsuit claimed that Ms. Mitchell “sustained serious physical trauma and shock and injury to her nervous system and person” as a result of her proximity to the shooting. It accused Baldwin of “intentionally, without just cause or excuse,” cocking and firing the revolver in a scene that did not call for it.In Monday’s court filing, lawyers for Mr. Baldwin wrote that he could not have intentionally shot a live bullet from the gun because shortly before it discharged, the movie’s first assistant director called out “cold gun,” indicating that the old-fashioned revolver being used as a prop did not contain any live bullets and should have been safe to handle.“It is completely illogical for plaintiff to contend defendant Mr. Baldwin received a prop gun that everyone including plaintiff and defendant Mr. Baldwin expected to be ‘cold,’ while at the same time stating that Mr. Baldwin’s conduct was intentional in accidentally firing a live round,” the filing said.Mr. Baldwin said in a television interview last year that he did not pull the trigger of the gun while he was practicing on set that day. He said he did not fully cock the hammer of the gun, but pulled it back and let it go in an action that might have set it off.The filing from Mr. Baldwin’s and the production’s lawyers also asserted that Ms. Mitchell’s grievance did not qualify as a complaint under New Mexico’s workers’ compensation law.Ms. Mitchell’s lawsuit targeted the production more broadly for making a series of what she called “cost-cutting measures,” including hiring a 24-year-old armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who was just starting out her career as a lead armorer in the industry. Ms. Gutierrez-Reed’s lawyer has said that she was dedicated to safety on set; she filed her own lawsuit against the film’s supplier of guns and ammunition.The production’s court filing said that Ms. Mitchell’s allegations relied on “a list of things that she contends, in hindsight, should or should not have been done” to ensure safety on set; the production’s lawyers argued that her case was insufficient and should be dismissed. More

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      Alec Baldwin Turns Over His Phone in ‘Rust’ Investigation

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      Detectives investigating the actor’s fatal shooting of a cinematographer on a film set in New Mexico had gotten a search warrant for the phone nearly a month ago.The actor Alec Baldwin turned his phone in to the police in Suffolk County, N.Y., on Friday morning, his lawyer said, starting a process that will allow investigators to collect data related to his fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of the film “Rust” last year in New Mexico.Mr. Baldwin agreed to a process in which he would hand over his iPhone and its password, and the phone’s data would be reviewed by officials from the Suffolk County police department and district attorney’s office before the relevant data would be passed to the authorities in New Mexico, according to a search agreement provided by Mr. Baldwin’s lawyer. Mr. Baldwin, who has a home in Suffolk County, handed the phone over to the police himself, his lawyer, Aaron Dyer, said. Juan Rios, a spokesman for the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office, said his office had been notified that the phone was handed over to the authorities in Suffolk County, N.Y.According to the terms of the search agreement, officials in Suffolk County will review the phone’s communications — including texts, emails, call records, voice mail messages, digital images and internet browser history — between June 1 and Dec. 5 last year, and will exclude any communications with his lawyers or his wife, Hilaria, which are protected by privilege.“Mr. Baldwin has a right to privacy regarding the contents of the iPhone, as well as regarding communications with his attorneys and with his spouse, which communications are protected by the attorney-client privilege and the marital communications privilege respectively,” the agreement states..css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-3btd0c{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.375rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-3btd0c{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-3btd0c strong{font-weight:600;}.css-3btd0c em{font-style:italic;}.css-1kpebx{margin:0 auto;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-1kpebx{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.625rem;}@media (min-width:740px){#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-1kpebx{font-size:1.6875rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}@media (min-width:740px){.css-1kpebx{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-1gtxqqv{margin-bottom:0;}.css-19zsuqr{display:block;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}.css-12vbvwq{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-12vbvwq{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-12vbvwq:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-12vbvwq{border:none;padding:10px 0 0;border-top:2px solid #121212;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-qjk116{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-qjk116 strong{font-weight:700;}.css-qjk116 em{font-style:italic;}.css-qjk116 a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-thickness:1px;text-decoration-thickness:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:visited{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}The police in Suffolk County are to create a “forensic download” of the iPhone “in its entirety,” according to the agreement, before the device is returned to Mr. Baldwin.The fatal shooting occurred on Oct. 21, while Mr. Baldwin was practicing drawing an old-fashioned revolver from a shoulder holster. He had been told that the gun did not contain any live rounds, but it did, and it discharged a bullet that killed the cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, and wounded the movie’s director, Joel Souza. Investigators looking into the shooting, and seeking to determine how a live round got into the gun, secured a search warrant for Mr. Baldwin’s phone on Dec. 16.The agreement to turn over Mr. Baldwin’s phone states that the search warrant is not enforceable in New York — where he lives — and that without Mr. Baldwin’s consent to search the phone, the authorities would be required to seek a separate warrant in the state. To avoid that, the agreement says, Mr. Baldwin has agreed to proceed “as if the NM Warrant had been obtained in New York.”“Alec voluntarily provided his phone to the authorities this morning so they can finish their investigation,” Mr. Dyer said in a statement. “But this matter isn’t about his phone, and there are no answers on his phone. Alec did nothing wrong.”The set of the movie “Rust,” where Halyna Hutchins was fatally shot in October.Jae C. Hong/Associated PressWhile generally limiting their search to communications between June 1 and Dec. 5, officers will be able to access communications with Matthew Hutchins, Ms. Hutchins’s widower, and Santa Fe law enforcement officials from any date, according to the search agreement. It said that Mr. Baldwin had agreed to provide a list of telephone numbers for “individuals and entities connected with the production of the film.” The officials “may only extract call records for calls to or from those numbers during the relevant time period,” according to the agreement.After media outlets reported last week that the Santa Fe authorities did not have Mr. Baldwin’s phone three weeks after the warrant was granted, Mr. Baldwin posted a video on his Instagram account saying that any suggestion that he was not cooperating with investigators was “a lie.” He said that the process would take time and that the authorities “have to specify what exactly they want.”“They can’t just go through your phone and take, you know, your photos or your love letters to your wife or what have you,” Mr. Baldwin said in the video.In a television interview last month, Mr. Baldwin denied responsibility for Ms. Hutchins’s death, saying that he did not know how live rounds got onto the film set and that he did not pull the trigger before the gun went off.Before handing Mr. Baldwin the gun on set, the movie’s first assistant director, Dave Halls, called out “cold gun,” an industry term meaning that a firearm does not have live rounds and is safe to use. Mr. Baldwin said in the interview that Ms. Hutchins had been instructing him on where to point the gun when it discharged.“It is clear that he was told it was a cold gun, and was following instructions when this tragic accident occurred,” Mr. Dyer said in the statement. “The real question that needs to be answered is how live rounds got on the set in the first place.” More

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      Alec Baldwin Will Turn in Phone to Investigators This Week, Lawyer Says

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      The sheriff’s office in Santa Fe said nearly a month had elapsed since a search warrant was issued for the phone, but it had not yet been surrendered.A lawyer for Alec Baldwin said on Thursday that the actor would turn over his cellphone “this week” to authorities investigating his fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set for the film “Rust,” nearly a month after detectives secured a search warrant for the device.The pledge came hours after the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office — which is investigating the shooting — had released a statement pointedly noting that the warrant had been obtained on Dec. 16 but that “to date, the cellphone has not been turned over to authorities.”Mr. Baldwin’s lawyer, Aaron Dyer, said in a statement that he and his client had reached an agreement with officials in Santa Fe County last weekend regarding the actor’s phone and that they were finalizing logistics with the authorities in New York, where Mr. Baldwin has a home.“Ever since this tragic incident, Mr. Baldwin has continued to cooperate with the authorities, and any suggestion to the contrary is simply untrue,” Mr. Dyer said in the statement. “We requested that the authorities obtain a warrant so that we could protect his privacy on other matters unrelated to ‘Rust’ and have been working through that process.”After media outlets reported last week that investigators did not yet have Mr. Baldwin’s phone, weeks after a judge in New Mexico approved the warrant request, Mr. Baldwin posted a video of himself on Instagram saying he was complying but that the process was taking time. He suggested that he was concerned about maintaining his privacy, saying, “They can’t just go through your phone and take, you know, your photos or your love letters to your wife or what have you.”Officials in Suffolk County, New York, said last week that they were also involved in facilitating the phone’s transfer to the authorities.In a television interview last month, Mr. Baldwin fiercely insisted that he was not to blame in the shooting that killed the cinematographer of the film, Halyna Hutchins, and injured the director, Joel Souza. He said that when the gun went off, he had been practicing drawing it from his shoulder holster and that he had not pulled the trigger; he said he had not fully cocked the hammer of the gun, an old-fashioned revolver, but had pulled it back as far as he could and let it go in an action that might have set it off.Mr. Baldwin said in the TV interview that he did not know how live rounds got on the set of the western, a question at the center of the authorities’ investigation in Santa Fe. More

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      ‘Rust’ Armorer Sues Supplier of Ammunition and Guns for Film Set

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      The lawsuit accuses the supplier of contributing boxes of ammunition that were represented as containing only inert dummy rounds but that included live rounds.The armorer who was tasked with managing weapons for the film “Rust” in New Mexico, where Alec Baldwin fatally shot a cinematographer last year, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday accusing a supplier of guns and ammunition of introducing “dangerous” materials onto the set.In the lawsuit, the armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, said Seth Kenney and his company, PDQ Arm & Prop, had supplied the box — labeled “dummy” rounds — that, in fact, contained at least one live round, which discharged from a gun that Baldwin was practicing with on Oct. 21 of last year. The discharge killed the cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, and wounded the movie’s director, Joel Souza.“Hannah and the entire ‘Rust’ movie crew relied on the defendants’ misrepresentation that they provided only dummy ammunition,” according to documents in the suit filed in state court in New Mexico.According to the lawsuit, which named Mr. Kenney and his company, he had worked with Ms. Gutierrez-Reed’s father, Thell Reed, a prominent Hollywood armorer, on a different movie set in Texas about a month or two before the deadly shooting.Mr. Kenney had asked Mr. Reed to help train actors to shoot live rounds at a firing range off-set, the lawsuit said. Afterward, Mr. Kenney took ammunition, including live rounds that Mr. Reed had supplied for the training, it said..css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-3btd0c{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.375rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-3btd0c{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-3btd0c strong{font-weight:600;}.css-3btd0c em{font-style:italic;}.css-1kpebx{margin:0 auto;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-1kpebx{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.625rem;}@media (min-width:740px){#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-1kpebx{font-size:1.6875rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}@media (min-width:740px){.css-1kpebx{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-1gtxqqv{margin-bottom:0;}.css-19zsuqr{display:block;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}.css-12vbvwq{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-12vbvwq{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-12vbvwq:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-12vbvwq{border:none;padding:10px 0 0;border-top:2px solid #121212;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-qjk116{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-qjk116 strong{font-weight:700;}.css-qjk116 em{font-style:italic;}.css-qjk116 a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-thickness:1px;text-decoration-thickness:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:visited{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}According to court documents filed by a detective for the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office last year, Mr. Reed has said the live ammunition used on the shooting range could be the same that ended up on the “Rust” set.Ms. Gutierrez-Reed’s lawyers said in the lawsuit that Mr. Kenney and PDQ Arm & Prop of Albuquerque had “distributed boxes of ammunition purporting to contain dummy rounds, but which contained a mix of dummy and live ammunition to the Rust production.”They “knew or should have reasonably believed that the ammunition they supplied to the Rust production would be used in the filming of scenes involving the discharging of firearms,” the filing stated.Mr. Kenney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. His role as a supplier of blanks and dummy rounds to the production, and the question of whether he may have sent live ammunition as well, are already being investigated by law enforcement officials in New Mexico.In November, a warrant was issued to search Mr. Kenney’s business. According to an affidavit in the case, the head of props on “Rust,” Sarah Zachry, told detectives that some of the ammunition had come from Mr. Kenney, while some came from a previous production Ms. Gutierrez-Reed had worked on and “an individual identified as ‘Billy Ray.’”At the time, Mr. Kenney, who has also done business out of Arizona and California, said he was confident he was not the source of any live round.“It is not a possibility that they came from PDQ or from myself personally,” he said in an interview with “Good Morning America,” adding that dummy rounds from his company get individually “rattle tested” before they are sent out (when shaken, dummy rounds will rattle, while live rounds will not).In the latest lawsuit, Ms. Gutierrez-Reed’s lawyers described the actions she took to check that the gun was safe before it was later handed to Baldwin. “Hannah remembered the chamber that she believed needed to be cleaned in Baldwin’s gun and she cleaned it and then Hannah pulled another round from the dummy box, shook it, and placed it in the chamber,” the court papers said. “To the best of Hannah’s knowledge, the gun was now loaded with 6 dummy rounds.”Ms. Gutierrez-Reed’s lawyer has previously said that she did two jobs on the “Rust” set — armorer and props assistant — which made it difficult for her to focus fully on her job as armorer. The lawsuit, which characterized the “Rust” set as having a “rushed and chaotic atmosphere,” noted that Ms. Gutierrez-Reed was to be paid about $7,500 for both jobs combined.Ms. Gutierrez-Reed has been named as one of several defendants in separate lawsuits filed by two “Rust” crew members who asserted that she had failed to follow appropriate safety measures as armorer and that at 24 years old, she was not experienced enough to be overseeing weapons on the set.Mr. Kenney and his company represented that the “props were dummy rounds and safe and effective products for use on a movie set when in fact they were unsafe live rounds and never should have been on a movie set,” Ms. Gutierrez-Reed’s lawyers said in the court papers. More