Film director who was shot by Alec Baldwin says it felt like being hit by a baseball bat
SANTA FE, N.M. — A film director who was shot by Alec Baldwin during a film rehearsal — and survived — testified at trial Friday that he was approaching the cameraman when he heard a loud bang and felt the impact of the bullet.
“It felt like someone had taken a baseball bat to my shoulder,” said Joel Souza, who was injured by the same bullet that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the New Mexico set of the upcoming Western film “Rust” on Oct. 21, 2021. .
Souza never filed a complaint but was called to testify as prosecutors pursue charges of involuntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence against movie gun supervisor Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who maintains her innocence. Baldwin, the star and co-producer of “Rust,” was separately indicted by a grand jury last month. He has pleaded not guilty and a trial is scheduled for July.
Prosecutors piece together a complex series of events that culminated in gunfire on a movie set where live ammunition is expressly prohibited.
Souza said his workday started before dawn with the realization that six camera crew members had left the set. Hutchins made urgent calls for replacements and filming had resumed late in the morning in an outdoor scene with horses and carriages.
The after-lunch work began with positioning a camera in preparation for an extreme close-up of Baldwin pulling a gun from a holster in a makeshift church. Souza said he stood behind Hutchins to get a closer look at the camera angle, but he never saw the gun that shot him.
“I got behind her to try to look at the monitor, and there was an incredibly loud bang,” Souza said. “This was deafening.”
Baldwin and his handling of firearms on set are under special scrutiny during interrogations by prosecutors and defense attorneys.
On Thursday, prosecutors played video footage of Baldwin pressuring the movie gunmaker to hurry up as she reloaded her weapons between scenes.
“One more, let’s reload right away,” Baldwin says at the end of a scene. “Here we go, come on. We should have had two guns and both were reloading.”
Gutierrez-Reed can be seen quickly loading a revolver.
Expert witness Bryan Carpenter, a Mississippi-based specialist in firearms safety on film sets, said Baldwin’s orders violated the gunmaker’s basic safety protocols and responsibilities.
“He’s basically instructing the gunsmith on how to do his job… ‘Hurry, give it to me quick,’” Carpenter said. “Running with guns blazing and telling someone to run with guns blazing is not – not normal or accepted.”
On Friday, attorney Jason Bowles urged Souza to recall whether the script explicitly called for Baldwin to point the gun at the camera where he and Hutchins were standing.
“And do you know if that gun was supposed to be pointed at the camera based on the script?” Bowles asked.
“It’s not really about the script. For that particular shot, it literally had to be the gun pulled out sideways,” Souza said.
Prosecutors say Gutierrez-Reed is responsible for unwittingly bringing live ammunition onto the set and that she ignored basic gun safety protocols — in part by leaving the church rehearsal while a gun was still in use. Defense attorneys say it was not Gutierrez-Reed’s decision to leave.
Souza said he only remembered seeing Gutierrez-Reed in church after he was shot.
“I remember at one point looking up and her standing there… distraught,” Souza said. “I remember her saying, ‘I’m sorry.’ I’m sorry, Joel.’ And I remember someone just yelling at her, and they just led her out. ”