#Alec Baldwin didn’t know weapon contained live round: warrant

Alec Baldwin was told it was safe to use a loaded prop gun minutes before he pulled the trigger and fired a round that killed a cinematographer, a warrant application from the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office said.

Assistant Director Dave Halls didn’t know the firearm had live rounds inside, announcing it was a “cold gun” when he gave Baldwin the weapon on the set of “Rust,” a Western movie filming in New Mexico on Thursday, investigators said.

The gun was one of three that the film’s armorer Hannah Gutierrez had placed on a cart outside of a wooden structure where a scene was being performed, the warrant said.

Halls grabbed the gun from the cart and brought it inside to Baldwin to use for the scene, detectives said.

It’s not clear how many rounds were fired.

The warrant was issued in Santa Fe court so investigators could document the scene at the Santa Fe ranch where the shooting took place.

Law enforcement seized the weapon as well as other prop guns and ammunition the crew had been using during filming, according to the warrant. Baldwin’s bloody costume was also seized.

Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, 42, was fatally shot in the chest. Director Joel Souza, 48, who was standing behind her, was wounded.

No charges have been filed in the shooting.

Mamie Mitchell, the film’s script supervisor, told The Associated Press that she was standing next to Hutchins when she was shot.

“I ran out and called 911 and said ‘Bring everybody, send everybody,’” Mitchell told The Associated Press. “This woman is gone at the beginning of her career. She was an extraordinary, rare, very rare woman.”

Members of the crew planned to attend a private memorial service for Hutchins on Friday night, Mitchell said.

Baldwin took to Twitter on Friday to address the “tragic accident,” in which he said he has been in contact with Hutchins’ husband.

“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. 

“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. My heart is broken for her husband, their son, and all who knew and loved Halyna.”

With Post Wires