The deadly chain of events on set that led to Alec Baldwin being handed a gun with live ammunition and accidentally shooting and killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins have become clearer after it emerged last night the actor fired a live round, believing it to be a blank.
Baldwin, filming a scene inside an Old West-style church, aimed and fired towards a camera operated by Hutchins, striking her in the chest and director Joel Souza in the shoulder.
After firing the shot, Baldwin was heard saying: 'In all my years, I've never been handed a hot gun.'
Experts yesterday told DailyMail.com safety on set is usually extremely tight with live bullets never used in filming and it remains unclear why a firearm loaded with live ammunition was on the Rust set at all.
A warrant released on Friday revealed the gun was laid out by armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed and handed to Baldwin by assistant director Dave Halls, who told him it was 'cold', a phrase used to signal to cast and crew the gun is safe to fire for the scene. But how did this deadly chain of events unfold?
Alec Baldwin (pictured in Miami Blues) fired a live round towards the camera, accidentally killing Hutchins as she filmed him, and injuring director Joel Souza, who stood behind her
An inconsolable Alec Baldwin is shown, left, yesterday outside the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office after accidentally shooting and killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, right
Baldwin was handed a gun with live ammunition
Minutes before the accident, armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed laid out three prop guns on a cart outside the filming location, a search warrant released on Friday said.
First assistant director Dave Halls picked up one of the firearms - a vintage-style Colt revolver, DailyMail.com has exclusively learned - unaware it was loaded with live bullets, a search warrant said.
'Cold gun!' shouted Halls before handing the gun to Baldwin, using the phrase to signal to cast and crew that the gun was safe to fire for the scene, the warrant said.
Baldwin, filming a scene inside an Old West-style church, then fired a live round towards the camera, accidentally killing Hutchins as she filmed him, and injuring director Joel Souza, who stood behind her.
A search warrant released Friday said that armorer Hannah Gutierrez (left) laid out three prop guns on a cart outside the filming location, and assistant director Dave Halls (right) grabbed the gun from the cart and brought it inside to Baldwin
An image taken on the set of Rust shows cast and crew members receiving a safety briefing before filming stunts. The image was uploaded to Instagram a week ago
The warrant said that a single bullet struck Hutchins in the chest, and then struck director Joel Souza in the shoulder as he was standing behind her, injuring him, suggesting the bullet traveled all the way through Hutchins' body.
After firing the gun, Baldwin's immediate reaction was to ask why he'd been handed a 'hot' gun - meaning one containing live bullets.
The gun that fired the fatal shot was a vintage-style Colt revolver, DailyMail.com has exclusively learned.
Hutchins was airlifted to the hospital but was pronounced dead. Souza was taken to the hospital by ambulance but was released on Thursday evening.
After the shooting, the armorer took possession of the gun and a spent casing, which were turned over to police, along with other prop guns and ammunition used on the set.
Baldwin also changed out of the Western costume he was wearing, which was stained with blood, and turned it over to police.
The warrant was obtained Friday so that investigators could document the scene at the ranch where the shooting took place.
The difference between live rounds and blanks is the tip of the cartridge where the lethal bullet is contained is not there on a blank. Sometimes they are replaced with cotton or paper. Dummy bullets, unlike blanks, look like ordinary bullets but aren't meant to contain the metal bullet tip either
The gun that fired the fatal shot was a vintage-style Colt revolver, (pictured) DailyMail.com has exclusively learned
After firing the gun, Baldwin's immediate reaction was to ask why he'd been handed a 'hot' gun - meaning one containing live bullets (pictured, Baldwin doubled over in the parking lot outside the Santa Fe County Sheriff's offices)
Rust was armorer Gutierrez-Reed's second ever film
Rust was Gutierrez-Reed's second ever film as armorer after completing her first movie on The Old Way, starring Nicolas Cage.
She revealed after filming ended she 'wasn't sure' if she was 'ready' when she took the job.
'I almost didn't take the job because I wasn't sure if I was ready, but doing it, it went really smoothly,' she said in the a podcast interview last month.
Gutierrez-Reed, 24, is the daughter of legendary Hollywood armorer and firearms consultant Thell Reed, who trained her from a young age.
Halls is a veteran assistant director with scores of credits on productions involving prop guns, including Fargo, The Matrix Reloaded, and the TV cop comedy Reno 911.
In 2000, Halls was the second unit's first assistant director on The Crow: Salvation, the sequel to the film in which Bruce Lee's son Brandon Lee was killed in an on-set firearms mishap in 1993.
Neither he nor Gutierrez-Reed immediately returned messages from DailyMail.com late on Friday.
Neither has been charged or named as a criminal suspect in the case, though a police investigation is ongoing.
Why was live ammunition on set at all?
Live ammunition is never usually used on film sets and Baldwin's shooting and killing of a cinematographer a 'total mystery', a Hollywood armorer has said.
Mike Tristan, 60, who has provided guns for movie sets for over 30 years, said the injuries sustained by Halyna Hutchins, 42, should not have been possible.
Tristan, who has worked with Baldwin before, said any professional armorer would have checked the weapon, which he believes was a Western, before handing it to the 63-year-old.
'There should have been blanks in the gun, the on-set armorer's job is to check that before handing the weapon over,' Tristan told Dailymail.com.
'They then make sure that the actor stands on a mark and never points the gun at the crew or cast, you give them an aim to point at and the editing makes it seem like they were pointing at their co-actor.
'That's why everyone in the industry is very confused, how this happened is a total mystery at the moment.'
Tristan worked with Baldwin in the 1998 movie Thick as Thieves and says he was a 'total professional'.
'He was great to work with and was very safe,' Tristan said, 'I was surprised to hear it was him, he was always on the mark and
