After the fatal accident during the filming of the western "Rust", the suggestions made by the film technicians' union (IATSE) about real ammunition in Alec Baldwin's prop weapon have come true.

As stated in an application for a search warrant for the Bonanza Creek film ranch in New Mexico, the actor assumed that the revolver was loaded with blank cartridges.

The application, from which the industry portal Deadline.com quoted at the weekend, also described the alleged course of the accident on Thursday: In front of a church in the film ranch, the gun master Hannah Gutierrez is said to have placed three revolvers on a trolley during a trial scene. Deputy director Dave Halls took one of the guns and gave it to Baldwin with the words "Cold Gun", on American sets the reference to blank cartridges.

According to previous investigations, the sixty-three year old then aimed at the camera from a short distance.

When Baldwin pulled the trigger, cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who was standing next to the camera, was hit by a bullet.

The director Joel Souza also suffered a gunshot wound.

The 42-year-old Hutchins was brought by helicopter to the university hospital in Albuquerque, where she died on Thursday.

Souza was able to leave the hospital in Santa Fe a few hours after the accident.

As a spokesman for the Santa Fe County Sheriff Office confirmed over the weekend, the film ranch has since been searched.

Whether the investigators found recordings of the fatal film scene on seized cameras and smartphones remains to be seen for the time being.

Chaotic scenes

Even before the fatal shot, the filming of "Rust" is said to have led to chaotic scenes. A few hours before the accident, some members of the crew - many of them members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees - had unexpectedly resigned. They accused the production company Rust Movie Productions LLC of time pressure, unsafe working conditions and violations of corona regulations. Allegedly, the company had also promised them accommodation in hotels in Santa Fe, a few kilometers away from the Bonanza Creek film ranch, but then rented rooms for them in Albuquerque, about 70 kilometers away.

As prop master Maggie Goll told NBC on Saturday, deputy director Halls was also considered unreliable. “He didn't make the work environment safe. It was always claustrophobic on his film sets, there were no escape routes, exits were blocked, safety briefings were canceled, ”said Goll, recalling the earlier collaboration with Halls, including on the series“ Into the Dark ”.

Halls' control of the revolver before handing it to Baldwin has not yet been confirmed. How armorer Gutierrez prepared the revolver for the rehearsal scene in the church also remained open. According to the police protocol, the twenty-four-year-old, who last year also prepared the weapons during the filming of the western "The Old Way" with Nicolas Cage in the lead role, removed a cartridge case from the revolver after Baldwin's shot. As the Los Angeles Times reported, prop weapons misfired on the set of "Rust" a few days before the accident. Allegedly, members of the film crew are said to have repeatedly used the guns in their free time for target practice in the desert.

Baldwin, who is also one of the producers of the western, offered condolences to Matthew Hutchins, husband of the late camerawoman, and their nine-year-old son Andros on Friday.

"I am in touch with her husband and offer to help him and his family," he tweeted.

Baldwin, who burst into tears after a hearing by the Santa Fe district sheriff on Thursday, also said he would support the police investigation into the "tragic accident".

The Golden Globe winner attended the private memorial service for the forty-two-year-old in Santa Fe on Friday with Hutchins' husband and son.