Rust AD Who Gave Alec Baldwin Gun Had History of Unsafe Practices, Reveals Technician

Assistant director Dave Halls, who gave actor Alec Baldwin that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, was reportedly a subject of an safety complaint in 2019. Prop maker Maggie Goll recently revealed that she had filed an internal complaint against Halls for his conduct on the sets of the 2019 anthology Into the Dark. Halls had unwittingly handed a gun with a live shot to Baldwin and had yelled ‘cold gun’ indicating that it was safe. The gun shot Hutchins, and director Joel Souza, who was hospitalised.

In a detailed statement to NBC news, Goll said that Halls seemed like an affable person at first, however the ‘façade’ soon disappeared. “He did not maintain a safe working environment. Sets were almost always allowed to become increasingly claustrophobic, no established fire lanes, exits blocked. Safety meetings were nonexistent,” she said.

Goll is a pyrotechnician, who specialises in the use of fire-arms. She added that during one instance on Into the Dark set, Halls tried to keep filming even after the lead technician had suffered a medical emergency and the set had become unsafe.

However, she urged that Hutchins’ death was not solely Halls’ fault. “This situation is not about Dave Halls … It’s in no way one person’s fault. It’s a bigger conversation about safety on set and what we are trying to achieve with that culture,” Goll said.

At a rehearsal on the film set on October 21 in Santa Fe, the gun Baldwin used was one of three that a firearms specialist, or “armorer,” had set on a cart outside the building where a scene was being rehearsed, according to the court records. Court records indicate that an assistant director, Dave Halls, grabbed a prop gun off a cart and handed it to Baldwin, indicating incorrectly that the weapon didn’t carry live rounds by yelling “cold gun.” When Baldwin pulled the trigger, he unwittingly killed Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza, who was standing behind her inside a wooden, chapel-like building.

(With AP inputs)

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