Court documents containing previously unreleased statements from witnesses to the accidental fatal shooting of Halyna Hutchins have been released, painting a tragic picture of the cinematographer’s final moments.
They contain statements from director Joel Souza and a cameraman, and were released on Monday by the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office. Speaking to the New York Times, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office said, “Detectives entered the movie set today and continue to interview potential witnesses. Apparently there were quite a few people at the scene of what happened.”
The court documents reveal that moments before the accident, the cast and crew had taken a lunch break before returning to set. The last photo with 42-year-old Hutchins on set was shared by the film’s chief electrician, and shows Alec Baldwin inside a small church, surrounded by cast and crew. According to the documents, they were rehearsing a scene that involved a prop revolver.
Baldwin was “practising” and drawing the revolver across his body, pointing it “towards the camera lens”, when it was fired and struck Hutchins in the chest. The documents, presenting Souza’s recollection of events, read, “Joel stated that they had Alec sitting in a pew in a church building setting, and he was practising a cross draw. Joel said he was looking over the shoulder of Halyna, when he heard what sounded like a whip and then loud pop.
“Joel then vaguely remembers [Hutchins] complaining about her stomach and grabbing her midsection. Joel also said [Hutchins] began to stumble backwards and she was assisted to the ground.
“Joel explained that he was bleeding from his shoulder and he could see blood on Halyna.”
According to cameraman Reid Russell, Baldwin had been handed the gun by the film’s assistant director, Dave Halls, and was told it was unloaded. He fired after Halls yelled, “Cold gun”. Souza told directors that he wasn’t sure if the gun had been checked since the cast and crew had returned from their break. Russell added that Baldwin had been “very careful”.
Chief electrician Serge Svetnoy shared his version of the accident in a devastating Facebook post, writing, “I was standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Halyna during this fatal shot that took her life and injured the director Joel Souza. I was holding her in my arms while she was dying. Her blood was on my hands.”
He went on to cite negligence as the cause of the accident: “The negligence from the person who was supposed to check the weapon on the site did not do this; the person who had to announce that the loaded gun was on the site did not do this; the person who should have checked this weapon before bringing it to the set did not do it. And the DEATH OF THE HUMAN IS THE RESULT!”
In the post, Svetnoy places the blame on the film’s armourer, arguing that there is “no way” a 24-year-old woman can be “a professional with armory”, “there is no way that her more-or-less the same-aged friend from school, neighborhood, Instagram, or God knows where else, can be a professional in this field.” The armourer has shut down her social media accounts.
Image: Fred Hayes/Getty Images for SAGindie, Mark Sagliocco/Getty Images for National Geographic
