Alec Baldwin shooting ‘such stupidity’ says firearms expert helping police investigation: ‘It was the perfect storm’

A firearms expert has described Alec Baldwin’s fatal shooting of Halyna Hutchins as ‘the perfect storm’. 

Baldwin, 63, accidentally shot the cinematographer dead on the set of upcoming western Rust last Thursday, not realising there was a live round in the prop gun. He also injured the film’s director Joel Souza.

Steve Wolf, weapons safety expert, has been enlisted to assist the police with their investigation and will be visiting the scene of the incident to assess how the shooting could have happened. 

During his appearance on Good Morning Britain, Wolf explained: ‘We shouldn’t have had a gun that you could put live ammo into, two; live ammo shouldn’t have been on set, and three; you don’t point guns at anyone unless you want to put a hole in them. 

‘There’s no excuse given the ability to use mirror tricks or locked off cameras for anyone to ever point a gun in the direction of a person on a movie set. 

‘All three of those mistakes had to happen in order for this accident to have happened.’ 

Alec Baldwin was told he was being given a ‘cold gun’ (Picture: Instagram)

When asked what he’ll specifically be looking for when he visits the Rust movie set, Wolf explained: ‘I want to see the gun that was involved, it is possible to take a conventional firearm like this and to modify it…’ 

Holding up a gun, he went on to demonstrate how blanks are loaded into specific sections of the barrel, while explaining: ‘If you can see the back of this where you load that, these are round holes, right? But the front, these are not round holes, there’s been a modification made so that live ammo could never be put in there so a bullet could not come out. 

Halyna Hutchins died aged 42 (Picture: Rex Features)

‘That also was not done. It’s really inexcusable that people would bring live ammo capable guns onto a set and live ammo and point a gun at a person.’ 

‘It is the perfect storm,’ he stated. 

Wolf added: ‘It just feels like such stupidity because who hasn’t heard don’t point guns at things unless you want to put holes in them? Even if there’s the remote possibility that a gun might fire, why take a chance and point at someone?’ 

More: Good Morning Britain

Baldwin has not been arrested or charged but was questioned by police in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It’s said that the actor did not know the gun had a live round and immediately asked after the shooting why he was given a ‘hot gun’.

He was pictured meeting up with Hutchins’ husband Matthew and 12-year-old son Andros over the weekend, and is said to be supporting them as they grieve the cinematographer’s death.

Good Morning Britain airs weekdays at 6am on ITV.

Got a story?

If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.