Fatal shot 'had a one in a trillion' chance of happening, says Alec Baldwin

Europe 1 with AFP 3:48 p.m., October 31, 2021

The filming of the American western "Rust", in mourning over the death of cinematographer Alec Baldwin killed by an accidental gunfire during a rehearsal will not resume, the Hollywood actor said in an interview on Saturday.

"Sometimes accidents happen on film sets, but nothing like that. There was a one in a trillion chance that it would happen," he lamented.

"She was my family"

Alec Baldwin was speaking in front of television cameras for the first time since the drama on October 21, and he repeated how affected he was.

"She was my family," he said of the victim Halyna Hutchins, according to images broadcast by the people channel TMZ, showing Alec Baldwin accompanied by his wife Hilaria in Manchester, Vermont (northeast) .

He had previously expressed on Twitter his pain after the tragedy and indicated that he was cooperating with the investigating police.

The investigation continues

No arrests have taken place at this point and investigations continue into the circumstances of the tragedy at the Bonanza Creek ranch, where Alec Baldwin was filming a western film set in the 19th century.

He was handling a revolver that had been presented to him as unloaded and harmless when the shot went off, killing Halyna Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza in the shoulder.

Towards a ban on firearms on sets?

Since the accident, calls for better gun control on Hollywood sets have multiplied, a change in which Alec Baldwin has professed his "keen interest".

He said he was unable to say when he would be able to work on a set with weapons again, and indicated that the shooting of "Rust", of which he is a producer, would not resume.

"We were a very, very close-knit team making a film together and this horrible event happened," he added.

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Alec Baldwin was handling a Colt .45 revolver which had been presented to him as unloaded and harmless by assistant director Dave Halls.

The latter admitted that he should have checked the weapon before the rehearsal but that he had not done so.

According to several witnesses, Dave Halls had announced to Alec Baldwin that the weapon was "cold", which means in the jargon of the cinema that the revolver is empty and harmless.

Criminal proceedings "not excluded"

At a press conference, prosecutor Mary Carmack-Altwies did not rule out possible criminal charges against Mr Baldwin, who is also on the list of producers for "Rust".

But she insisted that it was too early to establish the responsibilities of each and to formulate the accusations which could result from it.

Live bullets prohibited on filming

Hannah Gutierrez Reed, the gunsmith employed on the film, said for her part that she had never been aware of the presence of "live bullets" on the set. This accident would never have happened "if live ammunition had not been introduced" on the set, underline his lawyers in a press release sent to AFP, rejecting any responsibility of their client in the death of Ms. Hutchins. "Hannah has no idea where this live ammunition is coming from," they said.

Searches carried out on the set resulted in the seizure of 500 cartridges, dummy or blank, which also appear to be live ammunition, said Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza, who is overseeing the investigation.

This ammunition must be assessed by the scientific police, as well as the fatal bullet, which ended its course in the shoulder of director Joel Souza.

Live bullets are totally prohibited on set by the very strict rules in force in the film industry, precisely to prevent this kind of accident.

"I think there was a certain carelessness on this set," Sheriff Mendoza also said.