Police issue search warrant for Alec Baldwin’s phone in relation to movie set shooting

Santa Fe law enforcement issued a search warrant for Alec Baldwin’s cellphone to further investigate the death of the cinematographer who he shot and killed on set of his new movie “Rust.”

Police believe there are conversations that may be crucial to understanding what led to the death of Halyna Hutchins from a prop gun malfunction (The New York Post). Baldwin was deemed responsible for firing the prop gun that killed Hutchins.

According to documents of the incident, investigators had originally asked the actor for his phone, to which Baldwin responded saying they would need a warrant. Conversations had been found on Hutchins’ phone dating back to July 14th, and authorities are looking to gather more information from Baldwin’s side of the conversation.

Baldwin had also been emailing with the film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, which showed he requested a bigger proper gun. According to the warrant “She checked the cartridge which would have been the one fired and said the first one she pulled out didn’t have ‘that’ (pointing to the projectile end of the bullet).” The other rounds were dummy rounds.

Guttierex-Reed said that she “did not believe anyone on the film set would be that malicious” to bring live ammo on set. However, Baldwin insisted in a TV interview that he “did not pull the trigger” (BBC). He told George Stephanopolous of ABC News, “I would never point a gun at anyone and pull a trigger at them. Never.” The actor has stated he is in full cooperation with law enforcement.