Suspected Live Round in Movie Prop Gun During Shooting on ‘Rust’ Set

More details on the fatal prop gun incident on the set of ‘Rust’ have been released. According to the Santa Fe County Sheriff Aden Mendoza, the gun that was discharged by Alec Baldwin during the shooting fired a ‘suspected live round’. Investigators believe they recovered the ‘lead projectile’ and shell casing from the ammunition that struck and killed the film’s director of photography and injured the director. A joint statement from the sheriff’s office and district attorney’s office, said “The facts are clear: a weapon was handed to Mr. Baldwin. The weapon is functional and fired a live round, killing Ms. Hutchins and injuring Mr. Souza.”

Approximately 500 rounds of ammo which contained a combination of blanks, dummy and live rounds were seized from the set and a total of three guns were seized from the proximity of the incident. In addition to the gun fired by Baldwin, another was non-functioning and the third was plastic. The evidence has been submitted to the FBI for further processing and interviews of those who were near the set during filming have began. According to Mendoza, Baldwin, armorer Hannah Gutierrez and assistant director David Halls have been cooperating with investigators.