"That's a bullet. That's a bullet. It's as I suspected. Somebody put a live round in the gun," Alec Baldwin told police following the fatal shooting of a cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the movie Rust in New Mexico in October.
In bodycam footage released by the Santa Fe County Sherriff's Department, Baldwin can be seen answering questions about how firearms were handled on set and whether anyone could have deliberately meddled with rounds loaded into the actor's prop gun.
"The thing that... is going to answer all of your questions is: what's in (Rust director) Joel's (Souza) shoulder. Is it a rock or is it a bullet?" Baldwin said to officers in a dramatic scene from his police statement.
Police officers can then be seen showing the actor an image of the projectile removed from Souza's shoulder.
"That's a bullet," Baldwin told officers in disbelief. "If that's a bullet that was pulled out his shoulder, then someone loaded a live round into the gun I was holding," the actor added, looking visibly shocked.
Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, 42, was killed when the revolver Baldwin was holding fired a live round that struck her in the chest and lodged in the shoulder of film director Joel Souza, who survived the gunshot wound.
When Baldwin was asked by police whether anyone on set might have a reason to switch the harmless "flash rounds" with live ones, the actor said he did not believe so, but added that a number of actors affiliated with a union for members of film crews, IATSE, had walked out the day before.
Baldwin, also a producer on the film, has been named in several lawsuits filed in connection with Hutchins's death, including one by her husband, Matthew.
Baldwin has denied responsibility for Hutchins's death and said live rounds should never have been allowed onto the set of the Western film at Bonanza Creek Ranch in New Mexico.
The state of New Mexico last week fined Rust Movie Productions the maximum amount possible, $137,000, for what it called "willful" safety lapses leading to the death of cinematographer Hutchins.
On Monday, the Santa Fe County Sherriff's Department turned over a portion of the fatal Rust shooting investigation to the First Judicial District Attorney's Office.
Source: Reuters
