Alec Baldwin's fatal shot: what we know four days after the tragedy

A dark day for American cinema.

On October 21, Halyna Hutchins, director of photography for the film "Rust," died in preparation for a scene where actor Alec Baldwin was handling a gun.

Joel Souza, the director of the film in question, was injured in the shoulder.

What happened ?

The investigation, still ongoing, has not yet clarified the responsibilities of those present that day.

No prosecution has been initiated.

But the preliminary investigation report and the testimonies collected by the American press reveal a series of dysfunctions and tensions upstream of the tragedy, which occurred on a ranch near Santa Fe, in New Mexico.

Here is what we know.

Actor Alec Baldwin was practicing drawing his gun

, pointed at the camera, when the fatal shot was fired at a cinematographer during a shoot in the United States, according to the preliminary investigative report, which took place. based in particular on the testimony of Joel Souza, the director, currently recovering.

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“Alec (Baldwin) was sitting on a bench in a church setting, and he was practicing drawing,” the document reports.

The director looked at him over the shoulder of the 42-year-old cinematographer.

After the shot, the filmmaker "grabbed the abdomen" and said she could no longer feel her legs, said the director, adding that she had "started to stumble back" and had been "helped to put down ”.

Alec Baldwin remained at large after being questioned.

The weapon was given to him by Dave Halls, assistant director already dismissed for an accident with a weapon

, on the set of a previous film.

"Dave Halls was fired from

 in 2019 after a crew member sustained minor injuries when a gun was accidentally

fired

," one of the film's producers said.

On the set of "Rust", the assistant director Dave Halls had said that the weapon was "cold", that is to say that it was supposed to be empty and therefore harmless in the jargon of the cinema.

Director Joel Souza, however, said "he was not sure" that the weapon had undergone another security check after the team's lunch break.

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Another person handled the weapon

 : the chief gunsmith of the set, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, 24.

She was responsible for constantly watching over the guns on set and checking at all stages whether or not they were loaded.

It was she who had prepared the revolver, and placed it on a cart with two other weapons.

Members of the team would have fired live ammunition at cans of beer, a few hours before the tragedy, with the weapon in question,

according to sources close to the shooting,

who confided in the specialized information site The Wrap, which specifies that it is a relatively common pastime on the sets.

The very strict rules of the film industry in this area, however, prohibit any presence of live ammunition on a film set, precisely to avoid this type of accident.

Some members of the team denounce poor security conditions.

The chief electrician of the shooting, Serge Svetnoy, blasted on Facebook a tragedy caused by "negligence and lack of professionalism", considering that the gunsmith was too young to "be a professional in weapons".

"To save money, we sometimes hire people who are not fully qualified for a complicated and dangerous job," he accuses.

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Accidental shootings would have taken place in previous weeks,

according to testimonies collected by the Los Angeles Times, without it being known whether these incidents involved real bullets or empty cartridges.

These remarks raise questions about the security conditions on the plateau, in addition to the social conflict that seemed to be taking hold.

"There was a serious lack of harm reduction meetings," relates a source close to the film crew, also in the Los Angeles Times.

Social tensions that very morning.

Shortly after breakfast, filming was first delayed when a six-person camera crew stopped work due to disagreements with production over their fees and accommodation costs.

The director of "Rust", Joel Souza, told investigators that, despite the emergency replacements found, the shooting now had to be content with a single camera.

Rust Movie Productions LLC, the film's production company, said it is initiating an internal investigation into its safety procedures, although it has not been made aware of "any official complaints regarding the safety of weapons or accessories on the site. plateau ”, according to her.

VIDEO.

Fatal shot on an Alec Baldwin film: a vigil in homage to Halyna Hutchins

Calls to ban guns on filming are increasing.

A petition on the change.org site, calling for a ban on live firearms on filming and for better working conditions for the crews, had collected over 29,000 testimonies as of Monday afternoon.

The successful detective series "The Rookie", shot in Los Angeles, decided in the aftermath of the drama to ban all real weapons on its set, a measure effective immediately, according to the movie magazine The Hollywood Reporter.

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Evidence of the emotion aroused, a fundraiser launched by the union of directors of photography and intended for the family of Halyna Hutchins exceeded $ 180,000 on Sunday morning, far from the initial objective of $ 10,000.

A vigil in homage to Halyna Hutchins took place Sunday evening in Burbank, city near Los Angeles.