The crew members on set as Alec Baldwin fatally shot cinematographer – and what they said happened
As authorities continue to investigate the fatal shooting by Alec Baldwin during a rehearsal film scene in New Mexico, questions are being raised about how the tragedy was able to occur on set.
Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, 42, was killed when Baldwin discharged a prop firearm on the set of the western movie Rust on Thursday. The film’s director Joel Souza, who was standing behind her, was shot in the shoulder.
It is unclear why the gun contained a projectile. Baldwin, best known for films and TV shows including The Departed and 30 Rock, and for portraying Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live, has described Hutchins’ death as “a tragic accident”.
Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed in the shooting. Pic: Swen Studios/ Reuters
No one has been charged in relation to the incident, which happened at the Bonanza Creek Ranch outside Santa Fe. Santa Fe-area District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies has said prosecutors are reviewing evidence, while New Mexico workplace safety investigators are examining if film industry standards for gun safety were followed during production.
Several media and social media reports have raised concerns about safety protocols on what was a low-budget movie set.
Here is what we know about crew members on set and what witnesses have told authorities.
Armourer
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was the armourer on the set of Rust. File pic: Shutterstock
The person in charge of weapons on set is known as an armourer. The armourer for Rust, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, had set up the gun and two others, according to an affidavit from the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office.
The weapons were set on a cart outside the building where a scene was being rehearsed, court records say.
After the shooting, she removed a shell casing from the gun and turned the weapon over to police when they arrived, according to the court records.
Before taking up the role of armourer on a previous film, Ms Gutierrez-Reed reportedly said she wasn’t sure if she was ready for the position.
Speaking in an interview after completing a role as head armourer for the Nicolas Cage film The Old Way, Ms Gutierrez-Reed said: “‘I almost didn’t take the job because I wasn’t sure if I was ready, but doing it, it went really smoothly.”
She is also said to have admitted she found loading blanks into a gun “the scariest” thing and had sought help from her father, the renowned gunsmith Thell Reed, to overcome her fear.
Assistant director
It was the film’s assistant director Dave Halls who grabbed the gun from the cart and took it inside to Baldwin, unaware that it was loaded with live rounds, a detective wrote in a search warrant application for the film set.
He shouted “cold gun” – an industry term meaning a weapon is not loaded with ammunition, indicating that it was safe to use – before handing the firearm over, the search warrant states.
His film credits, according to IMDB, include The Matrix Reloaded, Bad Santa and The Crow: Salvation, a sequel to The Crow – which saw star Brandon Lee killed on set in a similar firearms incident in the 1990s.
Director
Writer and director Joel Souza was shot in the incident but was later discharged from hospital. Pic: Ron Adar/SOPA Images/Shutterstock
Rust director Joel Souza was standing behind Ms Hutchins and was shot in the shoulder during the incident. He was taken to hospital but later discharged.
At the time of the incident, Souza said he was focused on how the scene would appear on camera and that he recalled hearing the phrase “cold gun” being used, according to the affidavit.
He said the scene they were shooting did not call for the use of live rounds.
Cameraman
Camera operator Reid Russell gave a statement to detectives, telling them that Baldwin had been careful with weapons on set.
Mr Russell said the actor was rehearsing a scene in which he was set to draw his gun while sitting in a church pew and point it at the camera when the fatal shooting occurred.
He said he was unsure whether the weapon was checked before it was handed to Baldwin but that the camera was not rolling when the gun went off, according to the search warrant affidavit.
When asked about how Baldwin treated firearms on the set, Russell said the actor was very careful, giving details of an instance when Baldwin made sure a child actor was not near him when a gun was being discharged.
Speaking to detectives about the time on set leading up to the shooting, Russell said several members of the camera crew had walked off the production in a dispute over payment and lodging, and he was left with a lot of work to do.
Electrician/lighting professional
A vigil for Ms Hutchins was held over the weekend
The film’s chief electrician Serge Svetnoy blamed producers for Ms Hutchins’ death in an emotional Facebook message posted on Sunday.
Mr Svetnoy said he had worked with Hutchins on multiple films and faulted “negligence and unprofessionalism” among those handling weapons on the set.
He also said that producers hired an inexperienced armourer.
Script supervisor
The film’s script supervisor, Mamie Mitchell, said she was standing next to Hutchins when she was shot.
Following the shooting, she quickly called emergency services, and details of the call were later released.
“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.”
In the 911 call, Ms Mitchell is calm but clearly in a state of distress; background noises suggest people raced to get help for the two people who had been injured while the call was being made.
Asked by the operator if the gun was loaded with a real bullet, she replied: “I don’t, I cannot tell you that… we have two injuries from a movie gunshot.”
Unnamed crew members
A report in The Los Angeles Times, citing two crew members who were not named, said that five days before the shooting, Baldwin’s stunt double accidentally fired two live rounds after being told the gun did not have any ammunition.
A crew member who was alarmed by the misfires told a unit production manager in a text message, “We’ve now had 3 accidental discharges. This is super unsafe”, according to a copy of the message reviewed by the newspaper.
The New York Times, citing three former crew members, also reported that there were at least two earlier accidental gun discharges.
Rust Movie Productions said in a statement on Friday that it had not been aware of any safety concerns but was investigating claims of previous incidents.
“Though we were not made aware of any official complaints concerning weapon or prop safety on set, we will be conducting an internal review of our procedures while production is shut down,” it said.
A case of the flesh-eating screwworm parasite has been detected in a person in the United States for the first time.
The parasitic flies eat cattle and other warm-blooded animals alive, with an outbreak beginning in Central America and southern Mexico late last year.
It is ultimately fatal if left untreated.
The case in the US was identified in a person from Maryland who had travelled from Guatemala.
Beth Thompson, South Dakota’s state veterinarian, told Reuters on Sunday that she was notified of the case within the
last week.
A Maryland state government official also confirmed the case.
The person was treated and prevention measures were implemented, Reuters reports.
The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Maryland Department of Health did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
What is screwworm?
The female screwworm fly lays eggs in the wounds of warm-blooded animals and once hatched, hundreds of screwworm larvae use their sharp mouths to burrow through living flesh.
It can be devastating in cattle and wildlife, and has also been known to infect humans.
Treatment is onerous, and involves removing hundreds of larvae and thoroughly disinfecting wounds. They are largely survivable if treated early enough.
The confirmed case is likely to rattle the beef and cattle futures market, which has seen record-high prices because of tight supplies.
The US typically imports more than a million cattle from Mexico each year to process into beef. The screwworm outbreak could cost Texas – the biggest cattle-producing state – $1.8bn (£1.3bn) in livestock deaths, labour costs and medication
expenses.
A view shows a calf after being sprayed with a disinfectant spray to prevent screwworm. Pic: Reuters
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has set traps and sent mounted officers along the border, but it has faced criticism from some cattle producers and market analysts for not acting faster to pursue increased fly production via a sterile fly facility.
What is a sterile fly facility?
The case also comes just one week after the US agriculture secretary, Brooke Rollins, travelled to Texas to announce plans to build a sterile fly facility there in a bid to combat the pest. Ms Rollins had pledged repeatedly to keep screwworm out of the country.
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A sterile fly facility produces a large number of male flies and sterilises them – these males are then released to mate with wild female insects, which collapses the wild population over time. This method eradicated screwworm from the US in the 1960s.
Mexico has also taken efforts to limit the spread of the pest, which can kill livestock within weeks if not treated. It had started to build a $51m sterile fly production facility.
The USDA has previously said 500 million flies would need to be released weekly to push the fly back to the Darien Gap, the stretch of rainforest between Panama and Colombia.
National Guard troops deployed to Washington DC in an effort to mitigate crime will begin carrying firearms, an official has said.
Defence secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the authorisation of roughly 2,000 National Guard troops to begin carrying weapons.
The majority of the guard members will carry M17 pistols, their service-issued weapons, while a small number will be armed with M4 rifles, reports Sky’s US partner organisation, NBC News.
The troops are authorised to use their weapons for self-protection.
A White House official told NBC News that despite being armed, as of Saturday night, the National Guard troops in DC are not making arrests, and will continue to work on protecting federal assets.
The troops were largely deployed from outside the state and were framed by President Trump as a concerted effort to tackle crime and homelessness in the nation’s capital.
Such deployments are not common, and are typically used in response natural disasters or civil unrest.
Democrats have bashed the deployment as partisan in nature, accusing Mr Trump of trying to exert his presidential authority through scare tactics and said his primary targets have been cities with black leadership.
Armed members of the South Carolina National Guard patrol outside of Union Station. Pic: AP
Pentagon plans to deploy US army to Chicago
Yesterday it was reported that the Pentagon was drafting plans to deploy the US army in Chicago, the largest city in the state.
The governor of Illinois then accused Mr Trump of “attempting to manufacture a crisis” and “abusing his power to distract from the pain he is causing working families”.
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Officials familiar with the proposals told the Washington Post that several options were being weighed up by the US defence department, including mobilising thousands of National Guard troops in Chicago as early as September.
Mr Trump had told reporters on Friday that “Chicago is a mess”, before attacking the city’s mayor, Brandon Johnson, and hinting “we’ll straighten that one out probably next”.
The governor of Illinois has accused Donald Trump of “attempting to manufacture a crisis” over reports the US president was considering deploying the military in the state.
US newspaper The Washington Post reported on Saturday that the Pentagon was drafting plans to deploy the US army in Chicago, the state capital.
It comes as part of Mr Trump’s crackdown on crime, homelessness, and illegal immigration in mainly Democrat-run cities. He recently deployed the National Guard in Washington DC.
In a statement responding to the report, governor JB Pritzker said Illinois had “received no requests or outreach from the federal government asking if we need assistance, and we have made no requests for federal intervention”.
He added: “The safety of the people of Illinois is always my top priority.
“There is no emergency that warrants the President of the United States federalising the Illinois National Guard, deploying the National Guard from other states, or sending active duty military within our own borders.”
The governor then said: “Donald Trump is attempting to manufacture a crisis, politicise Americans who serve in uniform, and continue abusing his power to distract from the pain he is causing working families.
“We will continue to follow the law, stand up for the sovereignty of our state, and protect the people of Illinois.”
Officials familiar with the proposals told the Post that several options were being weighed up by the US defence department, including mobilising thousands of National Guard troops in Chicago as early as September.
The Pentagon said it would not comment on planned operations, adding: “The department is a planning organisation and is continuously working with other agency partners on plans to protect federal assets and personnel.”
People protest against President Donald Trump’s use of federal law enforcement and National Guard troops in Washington DC. Pic: AP
Mr Trump, however, told reporters on Friday that “Chicago is a mess,” before attacking the city’s mayor Brandon Johnson and hinting “we’ll straighten that one out probably next”.
Mr Johnson has not yet commented on Saturday’s reports, but said on Friday that the president’s approach to tackling crime has been “uncoordinated, uncalled for and unsound”.
“There are many things the federal government could do to help us reduce crime and violence in Chicago, but sending in the military is not one of them,” he added.
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It comes after around 800 National Guard troops were deployed in Washington DC earlier this month, despite the US capital’s mayor revealing crime in the capital was at its “lowest level in 30 years”.
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According to preliminary figures from Washington DC’s Metropolitan Police, violent crime is down 26% in 2025 – after dropping 35% in 2024 compared with 2023.
In June Mr Trump ordered 700 US Army marines and 4,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles in California, during protests over mass immigration raids.
The deployment came against the wishes of state governor Gavin Newsom, who said: “The federal government is sowing chaos so they can have an excuse to escalate.
“That is not the way any civilised country behaves.”
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