Rust assistant director David Halls gave an emotional court testimony on Thursday, February 29, about the fatal set shooting.
“It wasn’t computing. My thought was that a blank round had been loaded,” Halls said in court on Thursday, per ABC News, referring to the moment that actor Alec Baldwin had been holding the prop gun in the direction of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and director Joel Souza.
Halls, the film’s safety coordinator, stated that he performed a safety check with the revolver before the incident. After the gun “went off,” Halls was one of the first crew members to reach Hutchins after she fell to the ground.
“She said, ‘I can’t feel my legs,’” he tearfully recalled on Thursday.
Alec Baldwin Gets Trial Date in ‘Rust’ Shooting Case After 2nd Indictment
In March 2023, Halls was charged with negligent use of a deadly weapon and sentenced to six months of unsurprised probation in a plea deal.
“I was negligent in checking the gun properly,” he admitted in his testimony of accepting a plea deal, adding that he conducted an “improper check” ahead of the incident.
Halls also detailed his decision to take the witness stand during Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez’s ongoing involuntary manslaughter trial. (Gutierrez has continued to maintain that she’s not guilty of the charges.)
“[So] Halyna’s husband and son, her family, know the truth of what happened,” Halls said. “It’s important that the cast and the crew, producers of Rust know what happened. And it’s important that the industry, the motion picture and television industry, knows what happened so that this never happens again.”
Rust, a western film starring Baldwin, was in the middle of production in October 2021 when Baldwin, 65, was holding a prop gun that went off and injured director Souza and director of photography Hutchins. They were both taken to the hospital for treatment, where Hutchins was pronounced dead at the age of 42. Souza, 50, ultimately recovered.
“There are no words to convey my shock and sadness regarding the tragic accident that took the life of Halyna Hutchins, a wife, mother and deeply admired colleague of ours,” Baldwin wrote in an X statement one day later. “I’m fully cooperating with the police investigation to address how this tragedy occurred and I am in touch with her husband, offering my support to him and his family. My heart is broken for her husband, their son, and all who knew and loved Halyna.”
Several months later, Baldwin claimed in an ABC News interview that he didn’t “pull the trigger” or know that the gun was loaded.
“I would never point a gun at anyone and pull the trigger at them. Never. I have no idea [how a bullet got in there],” the actor said in December 2021. “Someone put a live bullet in a gun. A bullet that wasn’t even supposed to be on the property.”
Us Weekly confirmed in January that Baldwin was indicted for involuntary manslaughter and that he demanded a “speedy trial” to “minimize public vilification and suspicion.” The proceedings have not yet commenced.
