SANTA FE, N.M — Alec Baldwin appeared stone-faced in court Wednesday as jurors were shown dramatic body camera footage depicting first responders attempting to save cinematographer Halyna Hutchins’ life after the “30 Rock” actor allegedly shot her by accident on a movie set.
The footage came on the first day of testimony for Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter trial. The New York native, 66 — wearing a dark suit, light purple shirt and maroon tie — gave away little emotion, occasionally taking notes and at one point putting his hand on his brow and bowing his head slightly.
Emergency responders showed up at Bonanza Creek Ranch on Oct. 21, 2021 where Hutchins and director Joel Souza had been shot after Baldwin was mistakenly handed a gun with a live .45-caliber round during filming for the gun-slinging Western.
The footage was taken from the body-worn camera of Santa Fe police officer Nicholas LeFleur — who walked the jurors through the mayhem that unfolded in the aftermath of the deadly shooting.
Hutchins and Souza could both be seen on the ground inside a small church where they’d been filming surrounded by medics, first responders and medical equipment.
“Halyna, deep breaths, deep breaths,” one unidentified woman could be hear repeating to Hutchins during footage. In the background, a man groaned in apparent pain.
Earlier, prosecutors said that Baldwin “played make-believe with a real gun” on the set of “Rust” — and Hutchins died as a result.
Baldwin’s lawyer, meanwhile, said he was merely an “actor, acting” and that the people who handed him a gun loaded with a live round are the ones responsible for the 42-year-old mother’s death.
Baldwin arrived at court Wednesday morning with wife Hilaria and brother Stephen Baldwin for support. He did not answer questions from a gaggle of reporters.
The “Saturday Night Live” mainstay and father-of-8 faces up to 18 months in prison if convicted.
LeFleur — who was seen in the video handing medical equipment to someone tending to Hutchins — testified that when he arrived at the scene his main concern was “priority of life” and he tried to “make sure whoever needs help gets help, and that the threat is stopped.”
LeFleur — who was a Santa Fe County sheriff’s deputy at the time of the “Rust shooting” — said he called for a helicopter to lift Hutchins out because an ambulance could take roughly 20 minutes to get to a hospital. She later died.
A later moment in the footage showed Baldwin smoking a cigarette as he was asked to stay apart from the other crew so that sheriff’s deputies could secure the crime scene.
Baldwin lawyer Alex Spiro asked LeFleur during cross-examination about Baldwin’s words to him.
“When you got to the scene Mr. Baldwin walked up to you and said, ‘I was holding the gun,’” Spiro said.
“He blurted it out, right?”
“Yes,” LeFleur answered.
“And in fact, he was very shocked,” Spiro said, before he started to ask whether it seemed like Baldwin had carried out the act accidentally.
“I don’t know the individual’s intentions, but his demeanor was sad. Upset,” LeFleur said.
