Police Wont Rule Out Arrest And Charges In Alec Baldwin Shooting Investigation

A press conference has been held today (27 October) at the Santa Fe Sheriff's Office to address the prop firearm shooting that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza on the movie set of Rust on 21 October.

Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza opened the conference by expressing his condolences to the Hutchins family and stated: "It's too early to comment on possible arrests and charges.

"If there is probable cause, arrests and charges will be made in relation to the incident. If not, we will complete our investigation and hand our finding over to the District Attorney."

Mendoza then explained how Alec Baldwin - the person who fired the gun - has not been ruled out of the investigation and interviews are set to go ahead with the actor, who has so far been cooperating with police.

The District Attorney also explained how she is ruling out 'any rash judgement'.

500 rounds of ammunition from the movie set - a mixture of blanks, dummies and suspected live rounds - have been collected by police and are being processed as evidence.

Camera footage has also been collected, but none of the actual incident.

The Sheriff's office acknowledged there were some 'safety issues' on the film set which are being thoroughly investigated.

Several reports that emerged in the aftermath of the incident suggested that there had been concerns on set about the safety issues and working conditions.

In fact, according to those reports, several workers walked straight off the set as a result of those concerns, which ranged from Covid protocols to gun safety procedures.

In a statement, Rust Movie Productions said: "The safety of our cast and crew is the top priority of Rust Productions and everyone associated with the company,

"Though we were not made aware of any official complaints concerning weapon or prop safety on set, we will be conducting an internal review of our procedures while production is shut down.

"We will continue to cooperate with the Santa Fe authorities in their investigation and offer mental health services to the cast and crew during this tragic time."

Santa Fe Sheriff's Office later said that their investigation into proceedings 'remains open and active', although no charges had been brought at that point.

Speaking for the first time a day after the incident that cause Hutchins' death, Baldwin said on Twitter: "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,

"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."