Crew member: Baldwin careful with guns before fatal shooting

Crew member: Baldwin careful with guns before fatal shooting

FILE - In this Sunday, Sept. 12, 2021, photo Alec Baldwin watches the men's singles final of the US Open tennis championships in New York. A prop firearm discharged by veteran actor Alec Baldwin, who is starring and producing a Western movie, killed his director of photography and injured the director Thursday, Oct. 21, 2021 at the movie set outside Santa Fe, N.M., the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office said.(AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A camera operator told authorities that Alec Baldwin had been careful with weapons on the set of the film “Rust” before the actor shot and killed a cinematographer with a gun he’d been told was safe to use, records released Sunday show. A search warrant affidavit includes details with camera operator Reid Russell, who told a detective that Baldwin was rehearsing a scene Thursday in which he was set to draw his gun while sitting in a church pew. The camera wasn’t rolling when the gun went off, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. The records released Sunday also include details from an interview with “Rust” director Joel Souza, who was also wounded by the shot.

Photo: FILE – In this Sunday, Sept. 12, 2021, photo Alec Baldwin watches the men’s singles final of the US Open tennis championships in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)