Alec Baldwin Breaks Silence On Halyna Hutchins' Death In Tense Roadside Confrontation With Paparazzi

Alec Baldwin broke his silence about the on set shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, telling reporters, "She was my friend."

Baldwin, along with his wife Hilaria, were driving in Vermont when they pulled over to confront the paparazzi that had been tailing them. Standing on the side of the road, as Hilaria filmed the encounter on her cell phone, Baldwin said he was limited in what we could say because of the active investigation into Hutchins' death currently underway by the Santa Fe Police, The Daily Beast reported. 

Hutchins, 42, was shot and killed on the set of the film "Rust" when Baldwin pulled the trigger on what he believed to be an unloaded gun. Instead, he fired a suspected live round, which hit Hutchins in the chests, exited her body, and struck director Joel Souza. 

Souza survived his injuries. 

Baldwin told reporters he was in touch with Hutchins' husband Matt and their 9-year-old child. At one point both he and Hilaria admonished a reporter for forgetting Hutchins name while asking a question. 

"If you’re spending this much time waiting for us, you should know her name," said Hilaria. 

Baldwin spoke broadly in support of changing the rules for how guns are used on film sets saying, "an ongoing effort to limit the use of firearms on a set is something I’m extremely interested in."

Baldwin said he'd decided to pull over and speak with reporters so they would stop following them. He explained that his children, who were in the car at the time, were crying and scared. 

The encounter between Baldwin and photographers lasted about four minutes. 

The Los Angeles Times today reported that in the moments after Hutchins was shot on set, Alec Baldwin repeatedly asked, “What the f— just happened?”

Crew members told the Times that production on the low budget film had been plagued by mismanagement from the start. 

“It always felt like the budget was more important than crew members,” Lane Luper, the A-camera first assistant, told the paper on Saturday. 

Crew members also allege that there were two accidental misfires before the fatal shooting and that they had grave misgivings about the film's relatively inexperienced chief armorer Hannah Gutierrez early on in production. In a statement released by Gutierrez' attorneys she denied any wrongdoing. 

“Safety is Hannah’s number one priority on set,” attorneys Jason Bowles and Robert Gorence said in a statement obtained by Oxygen.com. “Ultimately this set would have never been compromised if live ammo were not introduced. Hannah has no idea where the live rounds came from.”

Assistant director David Halls has also been under scrutiny. According to an incident report, he handed Baldwin the firearm, indicating it was a "cold gun," meaning it wasn't loaded, prior to the shooting. Halls had been previously fired from from a film set because of a gun mishap. In 2019, a weapon accidentally discharged on the set of a movie called "Freedom's Path," and the production company terminated Halls' employment on the project.

“I think there was some complacency on the set, and I think there are some safety issues that need to be addressed by the industry and possibly by the state of New Mexico,” Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said at a press conference last week.