The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office finally released its report on the accidental shooting on the set of Alec Baldwin‘s film Rust.
As Perezcious readers will recall, the 64-year-old actor discharged a prop gun – which he believed was “cold” at the time – on the set of the Western film in October of last year, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza. Soon after the shooting, authorities began to look into the incident. And now, the sheriff’s office has revealed the details on Friday of their findings from the investigation in a massive 550-page report.
According to ABC News, police found that the 30 Rock alum reached out to Halyna’s widower Matthew Hutchins from his phone two days after the shooting and continued to sporadically reach out to him over the next couple of weeks. On December 2, the report noted that Alex messaged him that he and Halyna “believed the gun was empty.”
Related: Alec Baldwin Sues Rust Crew Members For Negligence
Days later on December 10, Alec contacted Matthew again, saying the incident was possibly the result of sabotage and questioned if the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Department would “properly investigate” that angle. He wrote:
“Important for you to keep in mind: The Santa Fe Sheriff’s office may lack both the skill and the will to properly investigate the sabotage angle. I’m told their agenda is to write off as an accident and throw it to the civil courts. And yet, the more that is presented to me about certain anomalies on that day, the more open minded I become. I dismiss the sabotage claim initially. But not know. I hope these NM have the sense to follow it through.”
When Matthew asked who informed him of this supposed “agenda,” the Beetlejuice star said that multiple attorneys told him, per the report. Then, Alec began a text chain with an investigator in the case on November 8, 2021. He first asked if the armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed or assistant director Dave Halls ordered anyone to self-inspect the weapons, adding that no one ever told him to perform a self-check on set. Two days later, he asked if there was a chance he would be charged. Alec also texted his assistant two days after the shooting, saying:
“I have to delete my archive.”
The report then noted:
“There is no further details on the meaning of this message.”
But according to the father of seven’s attorney, Luke Nikas, he was only “referring to his Twitter archive, which he has long considered deleting.” The lawyer then told ABC News that Alec has “fully cooperated with the investigation and turned over his phone with all records, including all records from the day of the incident, to the Suffolk County Police.” Once the records were reviewed, Nikas said police then “turned them over directly to the Santa Fe County Sheriff, unless the records reflected privileged communications or were irrelevant to the Rust movie,” adding:
“He fully preserved all records related to Rust and turned them over to the authorities nearly a year ago.”
The report’s release comes after the sheriff’s office handed it over to the local district attorney, who will determine if criminal charges will be brought against Alec or anyone else involved with the Rust shooting. So we’ll have to see what the Santa Fe County District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies will decide to do. But it sounds like there might be a strong chance Alec will be charged with a crime since she requested extra funding from the New Mexico Board of Finance for the prosecution of “up to four” people in August — including “well-known movie actor Alec Baldwin.” Yikes!
While the star awaits his fate, he is currently dealing with several lawsuits, including one the star filed against several crew members for negligence. However, he has reached a settlement with Matthew in their wrongful death lawsuit.
Reactions to the report, Perezcious readers? Let us know!
[Image via MEGA/WENN, Lu Chau/WENN, TODAY/YouTube]
The post Alec Baldwin’s Texts To Halyna Hutchins’ Widower Revealed In Massive Police Report On <i>Rust</i> Shooting appeared first on Perez Hilton.