The Santa Fe County Sheriff revealed that 500 rounds of ammunition, a combination of blanks, dummy and live rounds, have been seized from the Rust set in New Mexico despite armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reeds' insistence that there was no live ammo on location.
While giving a press conference on Wednesday (Oct. 27th), Sheriff Adam Mendoza said that investigators believe they have recovered the “lead projectile” and shell casing from the ammunition that struck and killed Hayla Hutchinson.
Mendoza said, “The facts are clear: a weapon was handed to Alec Baldwin. The weapon is functional and fired a live round, killing Ms. Hutchins and injuring Joel Souza.”
Additional details were revealed by the search warrant affidavit filed on Wednesday.
Despite the sheriff’s findings, the affidavit states, “When Affiant asked about live ammo on set, Hannah responded no live-ammo is ever kept on set.”
According to first assistant director David Halls’ interview with detectives, he was supposed to check the weapon for live rounds before giving it to Baldwin.
The document read, “David advised when Hannah showed him the firearm before continuing rehearsal, he could only remember seeing three rounds. He advised he should have checked all of them, but didn’t, and couldn’t recall if she spun the drum.”
The local district attorney, Mary Carmack-Altwies, said at the press conference that it is too soon to say whether charges will be filed.