“He is not responsible for investigating it,” attorney Lisa Toraco said Monday in an interview on Fox News. “It’s not the assistant director’s job. If he chooses to check the firearm because he wants to make sure everyone is safe, he can do that, but it’s not his responsibility.”
“David advised that the incident was not a deliberate act,” writes the detective.
Toraco said Hall was not required to investigate the gun.
“Expecting an assistant director to check a firearm is like asking the assistant director to check the angle of the camera or asking the assistant director to check sound or light,” Toraco said.
“Helena Hutchins was not only one of the most talented people I’ve worked with, but a friend as well,” he said in the statement. “I am shocked and saddened by his death.”
Although Hall did not address the details of the investigation, he did comment on the changes he would like to see within the industry.
“It is my hope that this tragedy inspires the industry to reevaluate its values and practices to ensure that no one is harmed by the creative process again,” his statement read.
According to the Post, Hall said he was “overwhelmed with the love and support” and that his “thoughts are with everyone who knew and loved Halina.”
CNN made repeated attempts to reach Hall and did not respond. His lawyer declined to comment to CNN on Monday.
How Baldwin got the live-round gun is still a question
Toraco said witnesses told his team that the armorer or armorer’s assistants brought the gun to the set.
“Ultimately this set would never have been compromised if live gunpowder had not been offered,” attorneys Jason Bowles and Robert Gorens said in a statement. “Hannah has no idea where the live rounds came from.”
Toraco said some witnesses told his team that Armor handed the gun directly to Baldwin, and then Baldwin placed it inside a holster. Some witnesses also said that Baldwin wanted to adjust his holster and handed the shotgun to Hall, who handed the shot back shortly after the actor adjusted his holster, Toraco said.
According to Toraco, other witnesses have said that Armor brought the firearm in, another crew member checked the shotgun, and then Hall “checked the shotgun like a pass-through and handed it to Baldwin”. Because he was between the two,” Toraco said.
But she said one thing about what Hall did that day was misrepresented.
“In the affidavits, it is said that my client grabbed the gun from a prop cart and handed it to Baldwin. That didn’t happen at all,” Toraco said.
Sainte Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said investigators used different statements in the affidavits.
“They are not involved in all the statements, obviously, in the investigation,” he told CNN’s “Erin Burnett Outfront.” “So there are statements that Mr Hall either inspected or handled the firearm before giving it to Mr Baldwin.”
Mendoza said it’s important for Hall and others to cooperate with investigators and come in for follow-up interviews.
The sheriff said, “If Mr. Halls sees what happened on set that day, come and tell us how it happened.”
The sheriff said some of the people he wants to talk to again have not agreed to the advice of his lawyers.
Torraco said whether his client handed over the gun to Baldwin was not important.
“My client didn’t load the shotgun. My client didn’t point the shotgun at anyone. And my client didn’t pull the trigger,” Toraco said. “Armor comes in, Armour opens the shotgun, my client looks at it and one of the other crew members checks it out. Whether or not he handed the firearm directly to Alec Baldwin at the time or whether Armor handed it directly Whether or not Alec Baldwin didn’t really matter at the time because he didn’t load it.”
An earlier affidavit stated that before handing the gun to Baldwin, Hall shouted, “Cold gun,” implying that the firearms did not carry live rounds.
CNN has reached out to Toraco for comment.
Baldwin ‘extremely interested’ in future gun safety
Baldwin said he talks to detectives every day this weekend.
He told them that he could not comment on what happened as an investigation was going on.
Baldwin said he could not answer whether he would ever work on another film set that included the firearms used on the set of “Rust”.
“I know I’m very interested in the ongoing effort to limit the use of firearms on film sets,” Baldwin said. “But remember, something that I think is important, and that is, how many bullets have been fired in movies and TV shows over the past 75 years? This is America. How many bullets have been fired in movies and on TV sets… And almost all of them without incident.”
In case something goes wrong and “in the wake of this terrible devastation, some new measures will have to be taken,” he said, including the possibility of using rubber guns or plastic guns.
“It’s not fixed for me,” Baldwin said.
CNN’s Steve Almasy, Amanda Watts and Lisa Respers France contributed to this report.
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