Alec Baldwin Calls for Mandatory Police Presence to Ensure Weapon Safety After Shooting

(Left) Halyna Hutchins in Park City, Utah, on Jan. 28, 2019. (Fred Hayes/Getty Images for SAGindie); (Right) Alec Baldwin in East Hampton, N.Y., on Oct. 7, 2021. (Mark Sagliocco/Getty Images for National Geographic)

Alec Baldwin wrote on Nov. 8 that film and TV sets should hire police officers to monitor weapon safety on sets after he allegedly fatally shot a cinematographer during filming in late October.

Authorities in New Mexico have said that Baldwin, 63, shot and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins while filming the movie “Rust.” According to court documents, the actor and others told investigators that he didn’t believe that the gun was loaded when it was discharged.

“Every film/TV set that uses guns, fake or otherwise, should have a police officer on set, hired by the production, to specifically monitor weapons safety,” Baldwin wrote.

Since the shooting, Baldwin has issued few comments on social media, although he gave an impromptu interview to reporters in rural Vermont last week.

Baldwin and other film crew members haven’t been charged with a crime in the incident. “Rust” Director Joel Souza was also injured in the shooting. The film crew member in charge of guns and ammunition on the set said that she had inspected the gun before it was handed to Baldwin.

“Who put those in there and why is the central question,” Hannah Gutierrez Reed, the armorer for “Rust,” said in a statement issued by one of her attorneys. “Hannah kept guns locked up, including throughout lunch on the day in question (Oct. 21), and she instructed her department to watch the cart containing the guns when she was pulled away for her other duties or on a lunch break.

“Hannah did everything in her power to ensure a safe set. She inspected the rounds that she loaded into the firearms that day. She always inspected the rounds.”

Reed inspected the rounds before giving the gun to Assistant Director Dave Halls “by spinning the cylinder and showing him all of the rounds and then handing him the firearm.”

“No one could have anticipated or thought that someone would introduce live rounds into this set,” Reed’s statement said, noting that “she did firearms training for the actors as well as Mr. Baldwin, [and] she fought for more training days and she regularly emphasized to never point a firearm at a person.”

Previously, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza confirmed in a news conference that 500 rounds of ammunition were recovered from the film set. That included live rounds, blanks, and dummy rounds, he said.

Both Mendoza and the district attorney’s office said that they haven’t ruled out charges in the case.