Alec Baldwin has met the family of the cinematographer he accidentally shot and killed.
An emotional Baldwin was photographed consoling the husband and son of Halyna Hutchins on Sunday (local time), meeting the distraught loved ones just days after the fatal incident.
On Thursday, Baldwin killed Ms Hutchins after firing a prop gun with live rounds in it at her and director Joel Souza on the set of the film Rust in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Ms Hutchins was shot in the chest while Souza received non-life-threatening injuries to the shoulder.
At the weekend, Baldwin was seen embracing Ms Hutchins’ husband, Matthew Hutchins and their nine-year-old son outside their hotel.
Photos show Baldwin hugging the pair and walking outside around the hotel together before the trio went inside.
It comes as hundreds of people showed up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to pay tribute to Ms Hutchins at a candlelight vigil on Sunday.
Industry professionals, Hollywood actors, including Jon Hamm and John Slattery, and Albuquerque residents came out to pay their respects.
A second vigil will be on Monday in Burbank, Los Angeles, with an even greater attendance expected.
Ms Hutchins’ father Anatoly Androsovych told The Sun Baldwin was not responsible for his daughter’s death. Instead, he blamed the armoury team who handed the actor the loaded weapon.
“We still can’t believe Halayna is dead and her mother is going out of her mind with grief. But I don’t hold Alec Baldwin responsible. It is the responsibility of the props people who handle the guns,” he said on Sunday.
Mr Androsovych said his nine-year-old grandson “has been very badly affected.”
“He is lost without his mother,” he said.
Mounting calls of ‘unsafe’ weapons handler
Court records state that assistant director Dave Halls handed Baldwin the firearm, telling him the weapon was a “cold gun” moments before the fatal shooting.
A “cold gun” contains no live ammunition.
Ms Hutchins’ death sparked widespread reports of unsafe work conditions and gun safety practices on the set of the Western film, with three weapon misfires reported before the deadly mishap.
According to prop maker Maggie Goll, who previously worked with Halls on Hulu’s In The Dark, Halls was known for a lack of safety precautions.
She said Halls neglected to hold safety meetings or make announcements of a firearm appearing on set.
“He did not maintain a safe working environment,” Goll said in a detailed statement to NBC News.
“Sets were almost always allowed to become increasingly claustrophobic, no established fire lanes, exits blocked… safety meetings were nonexistent.
“The only reason the crew was made aware of a weapon’s presence was because the assistant prop master demanded Dave acknowledge and announce the situation each day.”
Rust’s location manager Stacey Mickey-Evans told Triple M Gold Coast on Monday the crew almost went on strike two weeks before the incident over unsafe work conditions.
She said the freak accident was “still hard to talk about” and questioned why real, loaded weapons were required on movie sets.
“It is unnecessary, it is dangerous,” Mickey-Evans said.
“This was obviously a real weapon, and this particular weapon was supposed to be loaded with blanks and that is what everyone thought, and it was checked and double checked, and triple checked… supposedly. That obviously didn’t happen and somewhere along the lines it fell through the cracks.
“When we’re talking about something that is a deadly weapon, it’s a huge mistake and tragic.”
No one has been charged in the fatal accident as police continue to investigate the incident.
The post Alec Baldwin’s emotional meeting with Halyna Hutchins’ family appeared first on The New Daily.
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