Warrant: Alec Baldwin Was Not Aware Weapon Contained Live Round Before Shooting

The Hollywood Reporter ^ | 10/22/2021 | AP, THR Staff

[marcusmaximus]

An assistant director unwittingly handed Alec Baldwin a loaded weapon and told him it was safe to use in the moments before the actor fatally shot a cinematographer, court records released Friday show.

“Cold gun,” the assistant director announced, according to a search warrant filed in a Santa Fe court.

Instead, the gun was loaded with live rounds, and when Baldwin pulled the trigger Thursday on the set of a Western, he killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

-snip-

According to the records, the gun was one of three that the film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez, had set on a cart outside the wooden structure where a scene was being acted. Assistant director Dave Halls grabbed the gun from the cart and brought it inside to Baldwin, unaware that it was loaded with live rounds, a detective wrote in the search warrant application.

The film’s script supervisor, Mamie Mitchell, said 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.”

Mitchell said she and other crew members were attending a private memorial service Friday night in Santa Fe.

[marcusmaximus]

Baldwin’s gun handler just deleted her Facebook page.

[Swirl]

“I’m wondering why they would even have a real gun to begin with.”

Maybe for protection, like illegal immigrants?

[chajin]

In an example of life imitating art, this scenario was the basis for the final episode of the 1950-60s Perry Mason television series, entitled The Case of the Final Fade-out, where an actor is shot dead on the set with a prop gun loaded with real bullets. (Spoiler alert: Dick Clark is the murderer, actually committing two murders.) An interesting aspect of the episode is the way all the actual backstage people for Perry Mason were given cameo roles in the episode as themselves (the cameraman as the cameraman, etc.), and Erle Stanley Gardner, the author of the original Perry Mason novels, himself played the judge at the episode's second trial.

[skimbell]

Alec Baldwin is a dumb ass.

ALL guns are always loaded.

[RummyChick]

cynical spice
@Urrk_GillBear
·

Replying to
@Urrk_GillBear
and
@prettyinpixies
The fact is Local 44 confirmed there were no union prop members on set that day because producers, i.e. Baldwin, instead hired nonunion scabs to do a job they were obviously unqualified for. They cut corners to save money and the crew paid the price.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Camera angle. The intended actor on the receiving end was not in the shot.

[jimwatx]

Gun handler was a she? Now I know what’s going on. She wanted that young woman dead, it was a love triangle.

[bdfromlv]

most blanks are crimped at the end and a full load of smokeless or smoke powder for re-enactors, when fired the crimp opens as the powder is expelled nothing solid/dangerous is supposed to exit.

[Carriage Hill]

You’re right.
There’s a LOT behind what happened, that’ll probably never be discovered or told.

[EEGator]

My guess is she and the Director were “head on” in the shot.
(Cinematically speaking)

[rktman]

He could be an ignorant dumbass. Oh, wait. He IS.

[rktman]

Still, NO live ammo on the set.

[Tijeras_Slim]

That filming location has been used for decades. It has pretty good security when films are being done.

[marcusmaximus]

https://www.google.com/search?q=Hannah+Gutierrez+filmmaker

[marcusmaximus]

https://www.google.com/search?q=Hannah+Gutierrez+filmmaker

[RckyRaCoCo]

One would think in 2021 there’s no way that would be possible, there would have to be rules regulating, if not outright banning such. This whole thing doesn’t pass the smell test. Not much does these days.

[gundog]

Language. And some Baldwin-league hotheads.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5u-pX6pEDL0

[verum ago]

I’ve never seen a blank. Are blanks easy to distinguish from live ammunition?

The defining feature of a blank is that it doesn't have a bullet seated in the mouth of the case. As such, I'm pretty confident you can identify which image below has blanks, even having never seen them before:







If you're wondering why the odd appearance, it's because the bullet normally holds in the gunpowder, so without it blanks use a longer case and crimp it shut to make sure the powder doesn't fall out. Occasionally they'll use some sort of very weak plug, but it's always brightly colored to make it easy to identify, as it could be confused otherwise with a flush-sitting wadcutter bullet. (Top- plug-style blank, below - flush-sitting wadcutter).





I've never seen a flush-style wadcutter used in a film because they look "weird" with no bullet protruding.

When handled, a blank feels very different from a live round, as most of the weight of a real cartridge is the bullet.

Mr. Baldwin needs to answer why he didn't verify the loads in the gun. And if the rumors that this didn't happen during a take are true, he needs to answer why he pointed a firearm at another human being and pulled the trigger.

And the set armorer / propmaster really, REALLY needs to answer as to why there were live rounds present anywhere on the damn set. There's absolutely no reason for that to happen- most productions can buy fake ammo that looks 100% real for filming purposes but is inert. Even a low budget indie project like this could still make rounds with fired primers and no powder that would look just fine from the front or back of a revolver, but with no chance whatsoever of discharging a projectile, either with enough force to harm nor enough force to get lodged in the barrel for a blank to later dislodge (as happened with Brandon Lee).

This is 100% inexcusable. Well into the realm of negligence, not accident (assuming it wasn't deliberate).

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Some blanks use a pressed in wax or cardboard plug to keep the powder dry and in the shell. But it can’t be mistaken for a live round.