A search warrant affidavit and 911 calls offer a moment-by-moment account of the tragic day on the set of the Alec Baldwin film «Rust.»
The cast and crew of “Rust” had just returned from lunch when it happened.
One minute, producer-star Alec Baldwin and a handful of others were rehearsing a scene in a wooden church on a dusty Old West movie set meant to look like 1880s Kansas. The next minute, two people were bleeding from gunshot wounds – one of which would prove to be fatal – and everyone was reeling from confusion and shock.
Here is a moment-by-moment account of what happened that day, based on a search warrant affidavit and 911 calls.
The crew was filming on October 21, 2021, at Bonanza Creek Ranch, a Western movie set outside Santa Fe, New Mexico. In the film, Baldwin plays a grizzled outlaw on the run from authorities with his 13-year-old grandson.
Mornings typically started with breakfast at 6:30 a.m., but that day they were behind schedule. A six-person camera crew had recently walked off the job, complaining about pay and housing, and a new crew had been brought in.
But even with the delay, things appeared to be going smoothly, director Joel Souza told Santa Fe County Sheriff’s deputies in the affidavit. Baldwin and crew members began rehearsing a scene in the rustic church, broke for lunch, and then returned to the set.
Baldwin, dressed in Old West clothes, was huddled with Souza, cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and a few others inside the simple wooden structure. One camera was set up, but because they were just rehearsing, nothing was being filmed or recorded.
Assistant director Dave Halls fetched a prop gun from a cart outside the church and yelled “cold gun!,” indicating it was unloaded. He then handed it to Baldwin, who sat in a church pew facing the camera and crew.
Baldwin was demonstrating a “cross draw” – pulling a gun from a holster on the opposite side of his body from his draw hand.
