Alec Baldwin’s crew recorded 911 calls and audio recordings have shown desperate attempts to save their colleague. There are also allegations of negligence.
Mamie Mitchell, the film’s script supervisor, called the shots after Baldwin accidentally shot Halyna Hutchins (42), and Joel Souza (48).
The tragedy occurred on Thursday as the group was filming in the desert outside Santa Fe (New Mexico)
Mitchell, a veteran script supervisor whose credits date back to 1974, calls the assistant director and accuses him of negligence.
Mitchell calls 911 to tell the woman that he needs an ambulance to Bonanza Creek Ranch. Two people were shot accidentally on a movie set.
Mitchell is talking on the phone and instructs another person to ‘clear’ the road to allow the ambulance to access the site.
Alec Baldwin, left, is seen in tears outside Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office. He accidentally shot and killed Halyna Utchins, right.
After speaking with investigators, Baldwin was seen looking distraught outside the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office.
Following the fatal shooting, the Rust Set is secured with yellow tape.
Aerial view of Santa Fe’s Bonanza Creek Ranch, where the movie was being shot
After Rust Director of Photography Halyna Utchins was killed, and Joel Souza was hurt on set, a vehicle from the Office of the Medical Investigator entered the Bonanza Creek Ranch’s front gate.
Mitchell is then transported to Santa Fe fire & EMS and, sounding panicked urges for a rapid response.
‘Bonanza Creek ranch. Two people were accidentally shot on a movie-set prop gun.
‘We need your help immediately. Bonanza Creek ranch. Come on.
Mitchell is then asked for her details by the 911 operators.
Mitchell, who worked on films like No Country For Old Men and Sicario can be heard saying, ‘It seems like somebody else is calling 911.
“Everybody should be. We need some assistance.
“Our director and our camerawoman have been shot.”
Baldwin and Hutchins are shown together (circled) on the set at Rust. This image was uploaded to Instagram by Baldwin two days before the fatal shooting.
Baldwin is seen in a costume that has been covered in fake blood in an Instagram photo
She then asks an actor on set: “Are you going to take him to a road?”
The 911 operator asks: “So, was it loaded avec a real gun or not?”
Mitchell replies, “I don’t, I cannot tell that.” Two injuries were caused by a movie gunshot.
While the phone operator is inputting the details, Mitchell can be heard telling someone else: ‘OK, this f****** AD that yelled at me at lunch asking about revisions, this motherf*****.
Joel Souza (director of Rust) is seen in November 2019 He was reportedly shot in his shoulder
‘Did he see me lean over my desk, and yell at you? He’s supposed check the guns. He is responsible for what happened.
According to a Santa Fe court search warrant, the gun was one among three that Hannah Gutierrez, the film’s armorer, had placed on a cart outside of the wooden structure where a scene was being performed.
Assistant director Dave Halls grabbed a gun from the cart and brought the gun inside to Baldwin. However, he was not aware that it was loaded up with live rounds. This was documented in the search warrant application.
It is not known whether Mitchell was referring Halls in the audio.
It was not clear how many rounds were fired. Gutierrez removed the shell casing from the gun following the shooting and handed it over to police, according to court records.
The 911 operator attempts to ask Mitchell how many were injured. Mitchell confusedly replies, “No, no, I’m not a script supervisor.”
Mitchell answered the operator again. It went off while I was rehearsing, and I ran to get it. We all went there together, but we doubled up on the camerawoman as well as the director.
Friday’s search warrant revealed that Hannah Gutierrez (left), an armorer, had placed three prop guns on a cart outside of the filming location. Assistant director Dave Halls (right), then grabbed the gun and brought it inside to Baldwin. It is unknown if Mitchell was referring specifically to Halls in this audio.
She tells another person, “They are clearing the roads, can you go back, back in town, back at the Western camp.”
Mitchell, flustered by the operator’s question, hand over the phone to a male.
“Hello?” The man replies, “Hello?”
“Hi, I have a list of questions that I need to ask you.” The 911 operator asks if you could answer them as best as you can. ‘Are their alertness levels high?
The man replied, “Yes, they are alert.”
Operator asks if bleeding is controlled. The man replies, “Let’s see what I can do to make it closer…” No.
It is unclear whether he is implying that bleeding cannot be controlled or that he is unable to get closer.
The tragedy has forced the production to halt. A spokesperson for Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Department said that they are investigating and “collecting evidence” in the wake of Friday’s tragedy.
“We’ve got one laid down,” he informs the operator, adding that they are close to gate one and have a van ready for escorting the ambulances to the spot.
The woman calls back, saying: “Hi, I’m calling from Bonanza Creek Ranch.” We need two ambulances and not one.
The operator responds: “OK, so now we’re calling someone else and we’ll get two of you up.”
The woman, her voice strained, responds: “OK.” That’s 10 to 15 mins?
The operator replies, “I don’t know – we’re getting them right away, to you now.”
“What?” “What?” The woman sounds panicked, as she talks to another person.
“We have two ambulances headed your way.”
“What?” “What?” The woman responds, and then turns to the operator, saying: “OK, thank you.”
The operator replied: “You’re welcome, bye.”
Mitchell later stated that Mitchell was standing next Hutchins when she shot Mitchell.
Mitchell said that he ran to 911 and said, “Bring everyone, send everybody.”
“This woman is gone at her beginning of her career. She was an extraordinary, rare, and very rare woman.
Mitchell said that Mitchell and other crewmembers were attending a private funeral service Friday night in Santa Fe.
Baldwin described the killing in a tragic accident.
“There are no words that can express my shock and sadness at the tragic accident that claimed the life of Halyna Houtchins, a wife and mother, and a colleague who we deeply admire,” Baldwin wrote on Twitter. Baldwin shared his thoughts on Twitter, stating that Baldwin is fully cooperating in the police investigation.
“My heart breaks for her husband, their son and all who loved Halyna.”
Juan Rios, the sheriff’s spokesperson said Baldwin was allowed to travel.
‘He’s a free man,’ Rios said.
ALEC BALDWIN ON SET TRAGEDY: WHAT CAN GO WRONG?
Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office continues its investigation into the incident that led to Hutchins’s death and the injury to the director. However, there are many possibilities for what could have been. Past accidents involving guns on set of movies offers a range of possibilities.
Baldwin fired the gun with a squib load, which means that something was in the barrel.
Baldwin may have used a prop gun to keep an object from getting stuck in its barrel. It’s also known as a squibload, which is when a cartridge doesn’t fire from the barrel due to the gas not being strong enough to push it out.
It is safe to fix if the gun is cleared. However, if someone continues firing from the same gun – live and not – it can prove dangerous.
A second round fired behind the weapon can cause it to explode or injure those in its immediate vicinity.
An accidental loaded bullet or part of a bullet was used instead of a blank.
Baldwin was immediately shocked to find out why he had been given a “hot” gun. This meant that it contained live bullets.
That’s what happened during the 1993 filming of actor Brandon Bruce Lee at The Crow.
Although the gun was initially believed to be loaded with blanks, an autopsy revealed that a.44 caliber bullet was found near Lee’s spine.
Police recovered dummy shell cases from the set.
A dummy, which is different from a blank, looks just like a live round, with a bullet at its tip.
The difference between live rounds or blanks is that the tip of a cartridge where the lethal shot is contained is not present on a blank. Sometimes they can be replaced with cotton or other paper. Dummy bullets, which look like normal bullets, but don’t contain the bullet tip, are not meant to be.
Blast from the Blank struck something else on set
Although it is unlikely, there is a possibility that the blank struck something else and damaged it. This could have caused pieces of equipment or props to fly towards Hutchins and the director.
Rhys Muldoon has used guns on the set many times, and believes that even blanks are dangerous. He told the BBC that the first thought he had was that of an actor firing a gun very close to the frame of camera. The gun then misfired and hit the DoP. Then something, either the French Flag or the blackbox, may have hit the director.
Experts in movie production say that even in such cases, there should still be additional safeguards.
‘If you are in a line of fire… you would wear a face mask, goggles, and stand behind a Perspex camera to reduce the number of people around it.
‘What I don’t understand in this instance is how two people have been injured, one tragically killed, in the same event,’ Steven Hall, who has worked on films such as Fury and The Imitation Game, told BBC.