New Mexico prosecutors knew ‘pretty close to the beginning’ they would file charges for Rust death

The audio recordings of 911 calls made by the crew of Alec Baldwin’s film Rust have revealed desperate attempts to save their colleague, and allegations of negligence.

Mamie Mitchell, the script supervisor of the film, made the call after Baldwin accidentally shot cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, 42, and director Joel Souza, 48.

The group were filming the Western film in the desert outside Santa Fe, New Mexico, when the tragedy happened on October 21.

In her call, Mitchell, a veteran script supervisor with credits dating back to 1974, points the finger at the assistant director, accusing him of negligence.

Mitchell calls 911 and tells the woman answering: ‘We need an ambulance out at Bonanza Creek Ranch right now. We have had two people accidentally shot on a movie set accidentally.’

While she is on the phone, Mitchell is instructing another person to ‘clear the road’ to allow the ambulance easy access to the site.

Mitchell is then transferred to the Santa Fe fire and EMS, and, sounding panicked, urges a swift response.

‘Bonanza Creek ranch. We have had two people accidentally shot on a movie set by a prop gun.

‘We need help immediately. Bonanza Creek ranch. Come on.’

David Halls is the Assistant Director of Rust, the Western movie Baldwin was acting in and producing when he accidentally killed Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza

The 911 operators then asks Mitchell for her details.

Mitchell, who has worked on films including No Country For Old Men, Sicario and 3:10 to Yuma, can be heard saying: ‘It sounds like somebody else is calling for ambulances.

‘Everybody should be. We need some help.

‘Our director and our camerawoman has been shot.’

She then asks someone on set: ‘Are they going to take him to the road?’

The 911 operator asks: ‘So, was it loaded with a real bullet or what?’

Mitchell replies: ‘I don’t, I cannot tell you that. We have two injuries from a movie gunshot.’

While the phone operator is inputting the details, Mitchell can be heard telling someone else: ‘OK, this f****** AD that yelled at me at lunch asking about revisions, this motherf*****.

‘Did you see him lean over my desk and yell at me? He’s supposed to check the guns. He’s responsible for what happened.’ 

According to a search warrant filed in a Santa Fe court, the gun was one of three that the film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez, had set on a cart outside the wooden structure where a scene was being acted. 

Assistant director Dave Halls grabbed the gun from the cart and brought it inside to Baldwin, unaware that it was loaded with live rounds, a detective wrote in the search warrant application.

It is not known whether Mitchell was referring Halls in the audio. 

It was unclear how many rounds were fired. Gutierrez removed a shell casing from the gun after the shooting, and she turned the weapon over to police when they arrived, the court records say.

On the call, the 911 operator tries to ask Mitchell how many people were injured and, confused, Mitchell replies: ‘No, no, I’m a script supervisor.’

The operator asks again, and Mitchell says: ‘Two that I know of. I was sitting there rehearsing and it went off and I ran out. We all went out there, but doubled over the camerawoman and the director.’

She tells another person: ‘They are clearing the road, can you go back – back in the town, back in the Western camp.’

The operator asks if there is any serious bleeding, and Mitchell, flustered, hands the phone over to a man.

‘Hello?’ the man says.

‘Hi, I have a protocol of questions I need to ask. If you could answer them as best you can,’ the 911 operator says. ‘Are they completely alert?’

The man replies: ‘Yes, they are alert.’

The operator asks if the bleeding is controlled, and the man replies: ‘Let’s see if I’m allowed to get closer… No.’

It is unclear if he is saying that the bleeding is not controlled, or that he is not able to get closer.

‘We’ve got one laying down,’ he tells the operator, adding that they are near gate one and have a van ready to escort the ambulances quickly to the precise spot.

A devastated Baldwin is pictured bent over outside the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s office after speaking to investigators

A woman then calls back saying: ‘Hi, I am calling back from Bonanza Creek Ranch. We actually need two ambulances not one.’

The operator replies: ‘OK, so we’re doing a call now for somebody else and we’ll get two up to you.’

The woman, her voice showing the strain, replies: ‘OK. And that’s 10 to 15 minutes?’

‘I don’t know – we’re getting them right now, to you now,’ the operator replies.

‘What? What?’ the woman says, sounding panicked as she speaks to someone else.

‘We have two ambulances heading your way.’

‘What?’ the woman says, then returns speaking to the operator: ‘OK, thank you.’

The operator replies: ‘You’re welcome, bye.’ 

Mitchell later said she was standing next to Hutchins when she was shot.

‘I ran out and called 911 and said ‘Bring everybody, send everybody,’ Mitchell told The Associated Press. 

‘This woman is gone at the beginning of her career. She was an extraordinary, rare, very rare woman.’

Mitchell said she and other crew members were attending a private memorial service in Santa Fe.

Baldwin described the killing as a ‘tragic accident.’

‘There are no words to convey my shock and sadness regarding the tragic accident that took the life of Halyna Hutchins, a wife, mother and deeply admired colleague of ours. I’m fully cooperating with the police investigation,’ Baldwin wrote on Twitter. 

‘My heart is broken for her husband, their son, and all who knew and loved Halyna.’

No immediate charges were filed, and sheriff’s spokesman Juan Rios said Baldwin was permitted to travel.

‘He’s a free man,’ Rios said.