A New Mexico Environment Department subpoena means David Halls, the assistant director of Rust, must sit down for an interview regarding the on-set shooting death of Halyna Hutchins and the injury to director Joel Souza.
David Halls Ordered to Talk with Investigators
The request was given the stamp of approval by New Mexico District Court Judge Bryan Biedscheid on December 10. A missing piece of the October 21 shooting’s puzzle involves David Halls’ exact actions leading up to it.
This is because as the assistant director he was responsible for safety procedures on the set. As mentioned before, there were safety issues on the set due to the budget which meant that the cast and crew of “Rust” had a short, accelerated schedule.
Factor in that David Halls—who had previous safety issues on Into the Dark, One Way, and Freedom’s Path—was over safety on the set, this had the potential to result in something disastrous. That doesn’t mean it was going to happen. All of these factors still could’ve resulted in a film with no serious accidents but the chances were increased significantly.
Halls has since turned down two OSHA interviews as of November 2. Torraco said that Halls would be up to interview following the criminal investigation, according to the subpoena request. Halls’ lawyer would tell local outlet KOP-TV that the assistant director would cooperate with investigators.
There were several retellings of how the gun got in Baldwin’s possession. A few of the recollections have Halls declaring that there were no live rounds in the gun. In under two months, the details have either changed or been clarified.
Was the Gun Properly Checked and Who Checked It?
Following the shooting, it was reported that David Halls said that he hadn’t checked the gun himself but there are other retellings of the events prior to the shooting that says that Halls checked the gun before handing it off.
However, in November, Halls’ attorney Lisa Torraco took to Fox News to state that David Halls didn’t give Baldwin the gun. She followed up by saying that she didn’t know if Halls handed Baldwin the gun. Perhaps to further clarify, Torraco added “The armorer brought the weapon in. The armorer opens the firearm…[Halls] didn’t load it.”
Weeks later, the lawyer of armorer Hannah Guitierrez-Reed—Jason Bowles—would float a theory that Guitierrez-Reed was being set up to take the fall after several crew members bailed on the production before the shooting.
Earlier this month, Rust star Alec Baldwin also appeared on ABC for a disastrous sit-down interview with George Stephanopoulos about the death of the veteran cinematographer and how he’s dealing with things.
In the wake of the shooting, several film stars such as Dwayne Johnson, George Clooney, and Dolph Lundgren weighed on the need for stronger gun safety procedures on the set of movies.
Everything is hinging on what state investigators find out both from the evidence and detailed recollections of that day. As it stands, this situation is extremely murky and poses more questions and commentary than answers.
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