Alec Baldwin’s gruff attitude during his first interaction with police after he shot and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of “Rust” can be seen in body cam footage released by cops.
The video, released by the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office Monday afternoon along with a slew of other investigative files, shows cops responding to the shooting and their initial interview with the actor.
“My understanding is, you were in the room when the lady,” a responding deputy with the sheriff’s office says to Baldwin in the clip before trailing off.
“I was the one holding the gun, yea,” Baldwin replies in a gruff tone. “What do you need?”
The deputy told Baldwin, 64, to sit tight and not speak to anyone else as they worked to secure the scene and take statements from the witnesses.
A few minutes later, the actor is shown sitting with a few crew members and asking one of them for a cigarette.
“What do you got?” Baldwin asks a crew member, who replies that he has “Marlboro Medium.”
“I’ll take it,” Baldwin says.
“My hands are shaking… I’ll take anything.”
The video was shot on Oct. 21 moments after the fatal on-set mishap that left Hutchins, a married mom of one, dead and the film’s director Joel Souza injured.
A trove of other records, including crime scene photos, text messages and emails between crew members and footage from the film, were included in the release.
In one of the texts, taken from prop master Sarah Zachry’s phone, she tells a former prop master who did a minor job on “Rust” that Baldwin never liked using fake weapons.
“[Armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed] always wanted dummies in the gun and Alec never liked anything fake like guns and even the rubber knife. He always wanted the real knife, but eventually I gave him the rubber without him knowing,” Zachry wrote.
“He always wanted his real gun.”
The former prop master noted that requesting a real gun isn’t a big deal – as long as it’s handled properly.
Emails sent to the film’s assistant director David Hall, who was supposed to double check the firearm was safe after the armorer looked it over, shows he was repeatedly reminded about the need for safety meetings and the crew needed to be told weapons on set weren’t “toys.”
On Oct. 8, about two weeks before the shooting, the film’s unit production manager Katherine “Row” Walters sent an email to Halls and other members of the team about the need for “morning safety meetings” as the crew prepared for stunts and working with snakes and horses.
“I’d like Hannah to remind people that the firearms are not toys, they are real weapons,” Walters wrote.
Halls received several other emails in the days leading up to the shooting reminding him and other directors about the need for safety meetings.
The investigation into the shooting remains ongoing, and charges against crew members – including Baldwin – are yet to be ruled out, the sheriff’s office said.
Additional reporting by Elizabeth Rosner
