- The chief electrician on "Rust" said he held cinematographer
Halyna Hutchins in her last moments. - Serge Svetnoy wrote an emotional tribute to her that also criticized safety standards on set.
The chief electrician on the movie "Rust" said he held a dying Halyna Hutchins after she was shot on set.
"I was holding her in my arms while she was dying," Serge Svetnoy wrote on Sunday in emotional Facebook post. "Her blood was on my hands."
Police are still investigating the full circumstances of the incident that killed Hutchins on October 21, and not all details mentioned by Svetnoy have been confirmed.
An affidavit has said that lead actor Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun which killed Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza. The affidavit also said that Baldwin got the gun from assistant director Dave Halls, who had said it was empty.
Svetnoy also said he was nearby when the gun fired. "Yes, I was standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Halyna during this fatal shot that took her life and injured the director Joel Souza," he wrote.
He also tagged and thanked Cherlyn Schaefer, a set medic and member of a New Mexico theatrical workers' union.
Svetnoy said Schaefer "did everything she could" to save Hutchins, who was transported to the University of New Mexico Hospital in a critical condition and later pronounced dead.
Svetnoy said he was close friends with her and had worked with her on "almost all her films," and posted a picture of himself sitting down with the cinematographer.
He also posted a photo that he said was "the last photo with Halyna on set" - a view of several people, including Baldwin, in a church-like building. Hutchins is tagged with her back to the camera.
He described the professional challenges they had been through together. "We've been burning under the sun, freezing in the snow on the shoots," he wrote. "We took care of each other. Yes, I can say with 100% confidence she was my friend."
The electrician was also highly critical of safety standards on set, blaming "negligence and unprofessionalism" and seeming to lash out at Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the movie's head armorer, who he said was inexperienced.
Tributes have poured in for the 42-year-old Hutchins, who was considered a rising star in Hollywood and who has left behind a husband, Matthew, and an eight-year-old son, Andros.
A vigil was held in her honor on Sunday.