‘I do not hold Alec Baldwin responsible’: Father of slain cinematographer Halyna Hutchins blames armoury team

The cinematographer was reportedly pushing for safer conditions on set

The father of slain cinematographer Halyna Hutchins said he does not hold Alec Baldwin accountable for the accidental death of his daughter.

Ms Hutchins, 42, was killed on Thursday after Mr Baldwin fired a Colt revolver that – unknown to him – had been loaded with live ammunition. The incident, which occurred during the filming of the movie Rust in New Mexico, also injured the director.

“We still can’t believe Halyna is dead and her mother is going out of her mind with grief,” Anatoly Androsovych, Ms Hutchins’s father, told The Sun on Sunday. “But I don’t hold Alec Baldwin responsible – it is the responsibility of the props people who handle the guns.”

Mr Androsovych is trying to secure visas for himself and his wife so they can travel to the US and support their daughter's husband and nine-year-old son.

He said the young boy was struggling after losing his mother.

“[Halyna's son] has been very badly affected – he is lost without his mother,” he said.

Mr Androsovych said he blamed the movie's armourer for his daughter's death. Reports suggest that prior to filming, crew members had loaded the revolver with live ammunition and were using the gun for target practice.

Ms Hutchins’s sister railed against the negligence that led to her sister’s death.

“How was this negligence allowed by such a team of professionals? This is just such an absolutely absurd coincidence,” she said. “I don’t know where the investigation will lead, but there are so many guesses. God only knows what happened, it’s just so incredibly hard to live through it.”

The LA Times spoke with one of the film’s crew members, who said that “there was a serious lack of safety meetings on this set”.

Frustrations over safety and working conditions were a major issue on set. Another worker told The New York Post that a group of union crew members walked off to protest the working conditions on the project. Non-union workers were brought in to replace them, which is when the accident occurred.

“Corners were being cut – and they brought in non-union people so they could continue shooting,” a crew member said.

According to the crew member who spoke with The LA Times, Ms Hutchins had been pushing for safer working conditions on the set before the tragic accident.

Some crew members have blamed the film’s assistant director, Dave Halls, for not checking the gun for live ammunition before he handed it to Mr Baldwin.

“He’s supposed to be our last line of defence and he failed us,” a crew member told The Daily Beast. “He’s the last person that’s supposed to look at that firearm.”

Mr Baldwin issued a statement after the shooting saying he was working with police and offering support to Ms Hutchins’s family.

“There are no words to convey my shock and sadness regarding the tragic accident that took the life of Halyna Hutchins, a wife, mother and deeply admired colleague of ours,” he wrote on Twitter.

“I’m fully cooperating with the police investigation to address how this tragedy occurred and I am in touch with her husband, offering my support to him and his family. My heart is broken for her husband, their son, and all who knew and loved Halyna.”

Ms Hutchins’s union, IATSE Local 80, will hold a vigil for her tonight in Burbank at 8PM PST.