Hutchins, the film’s cinematographer, was killed and director Joel Souza was injured when a gun handled by actor Alec Baldwin went off while they were rehearsing a scene at Bonanza Creek Ranch in New Mexico in October. The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office released several files Monday from its ongoing investigation into the shooting, including photos, records and reports, officials said. Video of Hutchin’s death is included in the released data.
In the letter to the sheriff’s office, Brian Panish, an attorney for the Hutchins family, said the release of the evidence caused “irreparable” harm to her husband, Matthew Hutchins, and their son.
“Your office has trampled on the constitutional rights of the Hutchins,” the April 27 letter said. “Without any discussion, your office unilaterally stipulated that Mr. Hutchins hand over the materials on Monday the 25th.”
Because of the “sheer volume of material,” this was “a grossly inadequate time” and the family were not given the opportunity “to request that discretion be exercised and sensitive material edited,” Panish wrote.
In addition, the letter said the sheriff’s office did not redact Hutchins’ private and personal information. Panish wrote that his client fears video of his wife’s final moments could be used by bullies to emotionally abuse their son.
The letter asks the sheriff’s office to respect the Hutchins family’s “constitutional rights to future dignity, privacy, respect and fairness” and the office to remove footage of Hutchins “dying on the church floor.”
“While the damage caused by posting the video is irreparable, removing the video will end your office’s complicity in causing further damage,” the letter reads.
CNN has contacted the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office to confirm receipt of the letter and additional comment.
During an interview on ABC’s Good Morning America on Wednesday, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza defended the material’s release. “We are responding to a public records request asking us to release the information, and it was also an attempt to be transparent in the investigation,” Mendoza said.
The investigation is “close to completion,” he told ABC, adding his office is waiting for an FBI analysis of firearm ammunition, DNA prints, a coroner’s report and some cellphone data analysis. His office hopes this will be completed in “weeks not months,” he told GMA.
The evidence released includes “texts pertaining to it,” the sheriff says
The evidence files released by the sheriff’s office also included text messages that “Rust” gunsmith Hannah Gutierrez Reed shared with an ammo supplier for an earlier film in 2021 — not “Rust” — stating she plans to use livestock on set to shoot ammo.
Mendoza called the text messages “concerning” during an interview with NBC’s Today Tuesday and said investigators are investigating who brought live ammunition to the “Rust” set.
“At the moment nobody has come forward and admitted to having brought the live cartridges onto the film set. There was information from text messages that was concerning based on the fact that live ammunition was being discussed and may have been used on a previous film set and that was just a few months before production on the ‘Rust’ film set began so is That’s worrying,” Mendoza said.
A law enforcement official told CNN they believe the text exchange is important as they seek to determine if the gunsmith practiced conducting live fire drills at the same time she was responsible for on-set security.
Gutierrez Reed’s attorney, Jason Bowles, told CNN his client wanted to fire the gun to understand how the historical weapon worked, claiming she did not fire live rounds on set.
CNN’s Cheri Mossburg, Josh Campbell, and Stella Chan contributed to this report.