The father of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins slammed Alec Baldwin (pictured) over his role in her death, saying he was at least ‘partially responsible’
The father of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins slammed Alec Baldwin for accidentally shooting his daughter dead, saying the star was at least ‘partially responsible’ for the killing.
‘It is clear to me Baldwin fired the shot from his hand so it’s hard for me to understand how he cannot be held partly responsible for my daughter’s death,’ Anatoly Androsovych told The Sun.
‘I can’t understand the behavior of Alec.’
The 61-year-old father said he doesn’t understand Baldwin’s claim that the gun that killed Hutchins went off without him pulling the trigger.
‘The revolver is the type of gun which doesn’t shoot before the trigger is pressed and Alec is partially guilty for causing that shot,’ Androsovych said.
He questioned why Baldwin, 63, deleted a string of tweets he sent in wake of the tragedy.
‘Why did he sweep out his tweets when it became clear the shooting was on rehearsal?’ he stated. ‘And why did he fire the shot during the preparations?’
Androsovych, a Ukrainian who served as a submarine captain, also shared that he is worried his 9-year-old grandson, Anrdos, may not ‘ever fully recover’ from the incident.
‘Andros is slowly getting back to life, but this is huge blow for all of us,’ he said.
Halyna Hutchins’ (pictured with her husband Matthew and son Andros) father said he doesn’t understand Baldwin’s claim that the gun that killed Hutchins went off without him pulling the trigger. He said: ‘I can’t understand the behavior of Alec’
Hutchins (center) died after being shot by Baldwin during a rehearsal on Oct. 21 in New Mexico
Androsovych’s comments came just days after Baldwin denied that he requested a larger Colt gun before he fatally shot Hutchins on the set of Rust on October 21.
Baldwin denied the allegations in a tweet Thursday, sent after Sante Fe sheriffs in New Mexico issued a search warrant for his iPhone.
The 63-year-old actor tweeted an article from Newsweek which claimed that he had requested a bigger gun before the accidental shooting.
‘This, in fact is a lie,’ Baldwin wrote over the article link.
‘The choices regarding any props by me for the film RUST were made weeks before production began. To suggest that any changes were made ‘before fatal shooting’ is false,’ he added.
The search warrant, requested by Santa Fe sheriffs, authorizes police to review all text messages and photos on the actor’s iPhone, as well as any stored location data, as part of their investigation.
According to the search warrant, Baldwin told police that he exchanged emails with the film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez Reed, regarding what style of gun to use in the film.
They ultimately decided on a Colt .45 pistol.
The actor had been handed the antique pistol for the scene, and was told that it was ‘cold’ – not loaded.
Hutchins’ father, Anatoly Androsovych, shared that he is worried his 9-year-old grandson, Anrdos (pictured center with his parents), may not ‘ever fully recover’ from the incident
Androsovych’s comments came just two days after Baldwin denied that he requested a larger Colt gun before he fatally shot Hutchins (pictured) on the set of Rust on October 21
Alec Baldwin is seen on October 21, after speaking to investigators about the fatal shooting of Halyna Hutchins. Baldwin’s phone is now being sought by the team probing Hutchins’s death
He was rehearsing a scene in which he pulls out his gun and, in an interview with ABC on December 2, said that he never pulled the trigger, but the gun went off anyway.
Hutchins, a 42-year-old cinematographer, was shot and killed. The director of the film, Joel Souza, was shot in the shoulder and survived.
It is unclear why it has taken so long for New Mexico police to seize Baldwin’s phone.
The actor has insisted that he has fully cooperated with the investigation, and no arrests have been made.
Baldwin on December 2 gave an emotional interview to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, in which he said he did not pull the trigger, and felt no guilt because he believed he had done nothing wrong.
‘I let go of the hammer, bang. The gun goes off. Everyone is horrified. They’re shocked. It’s loud,’ he said.
Baldwin has spoken of his devastation at Hutchins’s death, and paid tribute to her as a wonderful cinematographer and a great person.
Baldwin spoke to George Stephanopoulos for an interview which aired on Dec. 2. During the interview hed denied that he requested a larger Colt gun before he fatally shot Hutchins on set
The set of Rust, at the Bonanza Creek Ranch outside of Santa Fe
Hutchins was shot just moments after the crew entered a church set to rehearse a scene (above)
He told Stephanopoulos he didn’t know she’d died until hours later, at the end of his police interview when he was photographed in the sheriff’s parking lot in Santa Fe.
He said that he has been told by people ‘in the know’ that it is ‘highly unlikely’ he’ll face criminal charges.
‘Someone is responsible for what happened, and I can’t say who it is, but it’s not me,’ Baldwin told Stephanopoulos.
‘Honest to God, if I thought I was responsible I might have killed myself. And I don’t say that lightly.’
He also took a swipe at former President Donald Trump, his media foe who he impersonated on Saturday Night Live, for suggesting that he ‘loaded the gun himself.’
‘He said that I did it deliberately. Just when you think things can’t get any more surreal, here’s the president of the United States making a comment on this tragic situation.’
Baldwin, after the interview aired, posted to Instagram a photo of him cradling one of his six young children.
‘No matter what happens to me. No matter what I suffer. If I win or lose, anything. Anything. No one can take away from me the joy and love you have given me, @hilariabaldwin,’ he wrote.
‘These are tough times. The world is choked with fumes of hate. But you have given me a reason to live. Our life with our family is all I care about. Nothing else. I owe that to you.’
Baldwin described in detail for the first time the immediate aftermath of the accident on October 21. He was filming a scene inside a church on the set of the movie when the gun was handed to him.
‘She’s getting me to position the gun – everything is at her direction. I draw the gun, to her marker. I’m not shooting to the camera lens, I’m shooting just off. In her direction. This was a completely incidental shot, that may not have ended up in the film.’
Baldwin says he cocked the gun, and was discussing with Hutchins how it looked on camera.
‘I’m just showing. I go, ‘How ’bout that? Does that work? You see that? Do you see that?’ And then she goes, “Yeah, that’s good.”
‘I let go of the hammer, bang. The gun goes off. Everyone is horrified. They’re shocked. It’s loud. They don’t have their earplugs in.
‘No one was – the gun was supposed to be empty. I was told I was handed an empty gun. If they were cosmetic rounds, nothing with a charge at all, a flash round, nothing.
‘She goes down, I thought to myself, “Did she faint?” The notion that there was a live round in that gun did not dawn on me ’till probably 45 minutes to an hour later.’
He added: ‘Well, she’s laying there and I go, “Did she hit by wadding? Was there a blank?” Sometimes those blank rounds have a wadding inside that packs, it’s like a cloth that packs the gunpowder in. Sometimes wadding comes out, it can hit people, and it could feel like a little bit of a poke.
Hutchins’ October 19, 2021 Instagram post showed cast members and staffers, including Baldwin alongside Hutchins herself and armorer Gutierrez-Reed (circled left to right) on the set of Rust in Santa Fe, New Mexico
‘But no one could understand. Did she have a heart attack? Because remember the idea that someone put a live bullet in the gun was not even in reality.”
‘I never pulled the trigger. No, no, no. You would never do that.’
Dave Halls, the assistant director who was watching, confirmed Baldwin’s account, through his lawyer.
He said he stood over her for ‘about 60 seconds’ and was then ushered out. Was she conscious?’ Stephanopoulos asked. ‘My recollection is yes,’ said Baldwin.
He said ‘no one had any idea’ there was live ammunition used until a police officer showed a photo of the shrapnel removed from Souza’s arm.
He said then began ‘the agony, insanity, that someone put a live bullet in the gun. She was laying there and she was there for a while I was amazed at how long they didn’t get her in a car or get her out, but they waited until a helicopter came,’ he said.
‘And by the time the helicopter took off with her we were literally all glutted to that process outside.
‘When she finally left, I don’t know how long she was there for. She kept saying, she’s stable, just as you disbelieve there was a live round in the gun, you disbelieve its going to be a fatal accident.
‘At the end of my interview with the sheriff’s department, they told me ‘we regret to inform you she didn’t make it,’ they told me then and there.’
He added: ‘That’s when I went outside and called my wife.’