Alec Baldwin shooting – news: Police don’t rule out charges as sheriff ‘not exactly sure’ where actor is – The Independent

US media reports suggest Alec Baldwin has left New Mexico, where the shooting took place, and has travelled to New England to spend time with his family.

TMZ obtained photos of Baldwin with members of his family in what the site described as an “off-the-beaten-path location”.

Baldwin is said to be cooperating fully with detectives, and the actor had not been asked to remain in New Mexico, reports said.

The New Mexico police officer investigating the shooting on the set of Rust has said he is “not exactly sure of [Alec Baldwin’s] present whereabouts”.

While Santa Fe sheriff Adan Mendoza said he didn’t know the exact location of the 63-year-old actor, Baldwin is said to be cooperating with authorities and had not been instructed to remain in New Mexico.

The film’s producers have hired the law firm Jenner & Block to investigate the shooting. They have said the lawyers “will have full discretion about who to interview and any conclusions they draw”.

Ireland Baldwin has issued another defence of her father, Alec Baldwin, following the fatal shooting.

The 26-year-old posted a screenshot of a positive comment about him on her Instagram.

The comment came from someone who identified themselves as working with the same production company that made the 1999 film Thomas and the Magic Railroad, starring Baldwin as Mr Conductor.

The comment said: “I’d dealt with typing up some pretty goofy celebrity riders in my day but NOT your dad.”

Joel Souza, the Rust director injured during the on set shooting has been seen in public for the first time.

Mr Souza was photographed sitting in a car with his hand covering his face while driving through Palo Alto in California.

The 48-year-old director was wounded but released from hospital following the incident.

Trial attorney Jeff Harris had told CNBC that the question of negligence on the film Rust could come down to the amount of firearms training Baldwin received.

Mr Harris, who is not representing any party in the incident, told the American news network: “It may ultimately boil down to really a question of whether or not the actor was appropriately trained in the use of firearms, and that would fall on the production company, and it might absolve Baldwin of negligence.”

He added that gross negligence likely occurred on the set of the film. He said: “I frankly think that if you have a movie set where you’ve got live ammunition that is intermingled with dummy ammunition and intermingled with blanks, that’s the kind of activity that rises to the level of gross negligence, and I do believe that someone, ultimately, is going to be charged with at least criminal negligence in this case.”

Nicholas Cage had previously complained about the behaviour of Rust amourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reid, it has been claimed.

The actor allegedly worked with Ms Gutierrez-Reid on the film The Old Way, only two months before she went to work on Rust.

A crew member who was responsible for positioning cameras on The Old Way told the film industry website The Wrap that Nicholas Cage had burst out in anger at Ms Gutierrez-Reid’s behaviour.

Stu Brumbaugh, a key grip on the movie, alleged that Ms Gutierrez-Reid had fired a gun near the cast and crew. The incident apparently caused Nicholas Cage to shout: “Make an announcement, you just blew my f***ing eardrums out!”.

He also alleged that it was the second time that the armourer had fired a gun in three days and that Nicholas Cage stormed off set.

My colleague Sam Moore has more details.

The family of a camera operator who was killed on the set of Midnight Rider have said that Hollywood needs to do more to protect staff.

Camera operator Sarah Jones died from her injuries after she was hit by a freight train in 2014 while filming for the film Midnight Rider, a biopic about musician Gregg Allman.

Her father, Richard Jones, told Fox News that the death of Hayla Hutchins was a painful reminder of the dangers of film and television sets.

He said: “It hurts. We’ve been working on this so that it wouldn’t happen again. And yet it has. I had hoped that Sarah’s death would make a difference. I had hoped that Sarah’s death would even save lives. I would have hoped that Sarah’s death would have saved Halyna.”

My colleague Arpan Rai reports on Mr Jones’ interview.

Actor Alec Baldwin has retweeted an article that claims that he had no idea that the gun he used contained live ammunition.

The article from the New York Times, retweeted by Mr Baldwin, described how assistant director Dave Halls declared the gun was “cold” before handing it to the actor. The article said that the assistant director had reportedly told detectives that he should have inspected each round in each chamber but didn’t.

Mr Baldwin also posted a second article a few days ago, originally published by Variety, which had the headline: “Alec Baldwin was told prop gun was safe before fatal shooting, affidavit says.

My colleague Alisha Rahaman Sarkar has the details.

The armourer on the film Rust, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, told a detective that she had checked the dummy rounds on set to ensure that they were not “hot”, according to an affidavit released on Wednesday.

Dummy rounds don’t have a primer cap and contain no gun powder. Ms Gutierrez-Reed told detectives that the ammunition was left out on a cart on the set while the crew took a break for lunch.

Assistant director, Dave Halls, then took the firearm from the cart and handed it to Alec Baldwin before the shooting, court papers detailed.

Ms Gutierrez-Reed reportedly told the detective that no live ammunition “is ever kept on set”.

Assistant director Dave Halls who handed over the prop gun to Alec Baldwin allegedly admitted that he didn’t thoroughly check it, according to new documents.

Halls allegedly told investigators that typically he would “check the barrel for obstructions,” and then armourer Hannah Reed-Gutierrez “opens the hatch and spins the drum,” before yelling “cold gun” on set.

But before the shooting on 21 October, Halls said he “could only remember seeing three rounds” of dummy bullets in the chamber.

“He (Halls) advised he should have checked all of them, but didn’t, and couldn’t recall if she (Reed-Gutierrez) spun the drum,” the documents state.

After the shooting, Halls said they opened up the gun and found four dummy rounds and one live round.

“He advised he could only remember seeing at least four dummy casings with the hole in the side, and one without the hole,” the documents state. “He advised this round did not have the ‘cap’ on it and was just the casing. David advised the incident was not a deliberate act.”