Alec Baldwin shooting updates: Latest news as Halyna Hutchins’s father says actor not to blame

The gun fired by actor Alec Baldwin on the set of Rust was being used by crew members of the film for target practice, TMZ reported.

The outlet has learned that an off-set target practice was being allegedly conducted using real bullets, which is how a live round found its way on the set.

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Sources familialiar with the work of the 24-year-old head armourer at the centre of the Alec Baldwin shooting have alleged that she was a “bit careless” during her first role as a head armourer on a film set.

“She was a bit careless with the guns, waving it around every now and again,” said a source to The Daily Beast of Hannah Gutierrez-Reed. “There were a couple times she was loading the blanks and doing it in a fashion that we thought was unsafe.”

The source added that on the set of the upcoming Nicolas Cage film, The Old Way, Ms Gutierrez-Reed handed a gun to an 11-year-old child actor without checking the weapon.

She recently said in an interview with a podcast that “loading blanks was the scariest thing to me because I was like ‘oh, I don’t know anything about it”, but her father, longtime Hollywood armorer Thell Reed, helped with her training.

Safety standards developed by film studios and labor unions are the primary protection for actors and film crews when a scene calls for using prop guns. The industry-wide guidance is clear: “Blanks can kill. Treat all firearms as if they are loaded.”

Shootings nevertheless have killed and injured people while cameras rolled, including the cinematographer who died and the director who was wounded this week when no one realized a prop gun fired by actor Alec Baldwin during the filming of “Rust” carried live rounds that are far more dangerous than blanks.

As The Associated Press explains, most of the preferred states for film and TV productions take a largely hands-off approach.

The father of Halynan Hutchins has said he refuses to blame actor Alec Baldwin for the death of his 42-year-old daughter, who was fatally shot on the set of Rust.

Speaking with the Sun On Sunday,  Anatoly Androsovych said: “We still can’t believe Halyna is dead and her mother is going out of her mind with grief, but I don’t hold Alec Baldwin responsible — it is the responsibility of the props people who handle the guns.”

He added of his grandson: “The little boy has been very badly affected — he is lost without his mother”.

Mr Androsovych added that her husband Matt Hutchins, a corporate lawyer in Latham & Watkins’ Los Angeles office, “will decide if legal action is going to be taken.”

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, 24, was hired to work as the armourer on the set of Rust.

The Daily Beast reported on Saturday that Ms Gutierrez-Reed was also the armourer on another film set where a firearms mishap shut down production. During work on the upcoming Nicholas Cage film The Old Way, the woman allegedly gave a gun to an 11-year-old actor without properly inspecting it for safety.

Following a vigil for cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on Saturday, a second vigil will be taking place in Burbank, Los Angeles, with many more cinema workers set to attend.

The vigil, which has also been organised by IATSE, the film and theatre workers union, saw many call for greater safety and better working conditions.

Amazon series The Boys will no longer use guns with blanks on set following the accident that killed Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer for the film Rust.

As Jacob Stolworthy writes, the incident has caused a widespread debate on the use of firearms on film and TV sets.

Eric Kripke, who created Supernatural and developed The Boys for Amazon Prime Video, pledged to ban guns from the sets of his TV shows in the wake of Ms Hutchins’ death. Instead, Kripke said that flashes, depicting shots, will be added in after filming takes place.

“Someone hurt or killed on my set is my worst nightmare,” he wrote. “Sending love to Halyna Hutchins’ family, @JensenAckles, cast & crew of Rust. I’m so sorry.”

Alec Baldwin – who co-wrote, produces and stars in Rust – is reportedly “canceling other projects” in the wake of an apparent accidental on-set shooting that left director of photography Halyna Hutchins dead and director Joel Souza injured, an anonymous source tells People magazine.

He is reportedly taking “some time to himself and re-center himself” after he was “absolutely inconsolable for hours” following the shooting, the magazine reported, citing an anonymous source.

The assistant director who handed Alec Baldwin a loaded prop gun is an industry veteran who’d been the subject of safety complaints for at least two years, according to former on-set coworkers.

Maggie Goll, an IATSE Local 44 prop maker and licensed pyrotechnician, told CNN that she’d worked with Mr Halls in 2019 and found that he failed to both hold safety meetings and consistently follow protocol when it came to announcing the presence of firearms on set.

“The only reason the crew was made aware of a weapon’s presence was because the assistant prop master demanded Dave acknowledge and announce the situation each day,” Ms Goll said in a statement to CNN.

The eldest son of former US president Donald Trump appeared to ridicule actor Alec Baldwin following the misfiring that killed Halyna Hutchins, a cinematographer on the set of Rust.

Mr Trump posted a photo of the actor – who famously spoofed his father, America’s 45^th president, on Saturday Night Live – that was captioned: ‘That look when an anti gun nut kills more people with a gun than your extensive firearm collection ever has…’

As Sheila Flynn writes, the memes came as many were mourning for Ms Hutchins: