Rust film crew voiced safety complaints before fatal shooting of cinematographer

The gun used in a fatal shooting on a movie set in New Mexico earlier this week had been declared safe to use by a crew member just before it was discharged, court records show. The shooting happened hours after some workers walked off the job to protest safety conditions on set.

During a Thursday rehearsal for the Western film Rust, assistant director Dave Halls grabbed a prop gun from a cart at a Santa Fe movie ranch and handed it to lead actor Alec Baldwin, according to the records that were made public Friday.

"Cold gun," Halls yelled, using a phrase meant to declare that the weapon didn't carry live ammunition and was ready to fire.

But it wasn't. When Baldwin pulled the trigger, he unwittingly killed 42-year-old cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza, who was standing behind her inside a wooden, chapel-like building.

A 911 call that alerted authorities to the shooting at the Bonanza Creek Ranch outside Santa Fe hints at the panic on the set, as detailed in a recording released by the Santa Fe County Regional Emergency Communications Center.

"We had two people accidentally shot on a movie set by a prop gun, we need help immediately," script supervisor Mamie Mitchell told an emergency dispatcher. "We were rehearsing and it went off, and I ran out, we all ran out."

The dispatcher asked if the gun was loaded with a real bullet.

"I cannot tell you. We have two injuries," Mitchell replied. "And this [expletive] AD [assistant director] that yelled at me at lunch, asking about revisions. … He's supposed to check the guns. He's responsible for what happens on the set."

Halls did not immediately return phone and email messages seeking comment. The Associated Press was unable to contact Hannah Gutierrez, the film's armourer — the person who oversees all weapons used on a production. Several messages sent to production companies affiliated with Rust also did not receive responses Friday.

The gun Baldwin used was one of three that Gutierrez had set on a cart outside the building where a scene was being rehearsed, according to the court records.

Halls grabbed the firearm from the cart and brought it inside to the actor, unaware that it was loaded with live rounds, a detective wrote in a search warrant application.

It was unclear how many rounds were fired. Gutierrez removed a shell casing from the gun after the shooting and turned the weapon over to police when they arrived, court records said.

Guns used in film productions are sometimes real weapons that can fire either bullets or blanks, which are gunpowder charges that produce a flash and a bang but no dangerous projectile.

New Mexico workplace safety investigators are examining if film industry standards for gun safety were followed during production of Rust.