Alec Baldwin Told the Cops To Get A Warrant For His Cell Phone, That’s Just What They Did

There are many sad and unsolved mysteries in the Hollywood archives. This current tragedy of the homicide on the set of Rust is likely to go down in those annals and become fodder for late night pseudo-investigative TV series.

The latest wrinkle is that the Santa Fe Police Department requested that Alec Baldwin turn over his cell phone to authorities. He would not comply with the request and told them to get a warrant, which they did Thursday. Daily Beast:

Affiant believes there may be evidence on the phone, due to individuals using cellular phones during and/or after the commission of crime[s],” Det. Alexandria Hancock said in the search warrant. “Such information, if it exists, maybe material and relevant to this investigation. Affiant was also made aware there were several emails and text messages sent and received regarding the movie production Rust in the course of interviews.”

The warrant also notes that Baldwin was asked to voluntarily turn over his electronic device—and responded that authorities would have to get a warrant.

Baldwin’s cell phone, according to the warrant, is crucial to gain a full picture of what happened on Oct. 21—and the days leading up to the deadly incident.

In an interview with Hannah Gutierrez Reed, the armorer on the film said that she was the one who brought the firearms out to set with a colleague.

“Hannah said while on set, she ‘dummied the guns with the dummy rounds,’” the warrant states. While the gun ultimately exchanged hands with several people, they were ultimately checked on set before they were given to Baldwin for the scene.

If you’ve followed this story at all, the armorer is depicted as both a wild party girl who got a job she wasn’t competent to hold, due to her father being a respected armorer in the business, on the one hand. On the other hand, the armorer is depicted (by her lawyers) as the most meticulous and careful woman you would want to know, double and triple checking everything. Either depiction is probably inaccurate and the truth lies somewhere in between. But where, nobody knows and that’s the key issue.

You’ve heard about people walking off the set because of problems with safety protocol. You may have also heard that a number of the crew wrote a letter of support to Baldwin, saying that there was a lot of laughter and professionalism there. Again, these are not mutually exclusive things. Having worked on movie sets myself, I can tell you that you take the good with the bad. Some people are real pros and a pleasure to be around, other people you hope you never see again. The movie business attracts magical people as well as fruit flies.

“Alec advised when the gun went off, he could recall Halyna [Hutchins] going down to the ground, and Joel [Souza] start to scream,” the warrant states. “Alec said since they were in rehearsal, he assumed he had an empty gun, therefore when he shot the gun, Halyna was right in front of them.”

When describing the gun he used, Baldwin told police he exchanged emails with Reed about the type of “period” firearm that would be used on set prior to filming.

“He said he requested a bigger gun, and she also showed him different styles of knives for the production,” the affidavit states, noting that Baldwin had requested a Colt .45 for the film, “Alec was shown a Colt with a brown handle, and a cherry handle, and he ultimately chose the one with the brown handle.”

My speculation is that Baldwin, a veteran of many first rate, class act films, was accustomed to a certain level of competence and had come to depend upon it. That was where he made his mistake. Low budget movies are a completely different world.

Now we’ll see what shows up on his phone.