A judge on Thursday granted the police access to Alec Baldwin’s smartphone, nearly two months into the investigation around how a gun he was practicing with on the set of the film, “Rust,” fired a live round, killing the movie’s cinematographer and wounding its director.
Mr. Baldwin said in a police interview on Oct. 21, the day of the fatal shooting in New Mexico, that the gun discharged while he was preparing for a scene in which he takes the old-fashioned Colt revolver out of his shoulder holster and cocks the hammer, according to an affidavit filed in the application for the search warrant. Detective Alexandria Hancock asked Mr. Baldwin and his lawyer to hand over his phone, the affidavit said, but was told to obtain a warrant.
The application for the search warrant said that the detective “believes there may be evidence on the phone, due to individuals using cellular phones during and/or after the commission of crime(s).” Detective Hancock, according to the affidavit, “was also made aware there were several emails and text messages sent and received regarding the movie production ‘Rust’ in the course of the interviews.”
The search is meant to collect “all information and data from the cellular phone in relation to the production of ‘Rust,’ and any member working on the production.”
In a statement Thursday night, an attorney for Mr. Baldwin, Aaron Dyer, said: “We are confident that the evidence will show that Mr. Baldwin is not responsible civilly or criminally for what occurred on Oct. 21, and he continues to cooperate with authorities. We proactively requested that the authorities obtain a warrant so that we could take steps to protect Mr. Baldwin’s family and personal information that is clearly unrelated to the investigation.”
The application said that Mr. Baldwin was brought into an interview room at about 5:12 p.m. the day of the shooting and that he agreed to speak with detectives after being advised of his Miranda rights. “Alec advised in the scene he slowly takes the gun out of the holster, then very dramatically turns it and cocks the hammer, which is when the gun goes off,” it said. “He said it was supposed to be a ‘cold gun’ so no flash charge or anything should have gone off.”
In a television interview earlier this month, Mr. Baldwin said he did not pull the trigger of the gun he was practicing with when it fired a live round. He said he did not fully cock the hammer of the gun, but pulled it back as far as he could and let it go in an action that might have set it off.
“Someone put a live bullet in a gun, a bullet that wasn’t even supposed to be on the property,” Mr. Baldwin said in the interview with ABC News. “Someone is responsible for what happened, and I can’t say who that is, but I know it’s not me.”
Mr. Baldwin has been cooperating with investigators in the case; the affidavit said the actor had contacted Detective Hancock “numerous times” by telephone and text message.
