In a dramatic turn of events, the courtroom testimony regarding the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the movie "Rust" took an emotional toll as the assistant director, David Halls, broke down in tears while recounting the aftermath of the tragic incident. Halls' new testimony contradicts previous accounts surrounding the final safety check and the actor who handed the revolver to Baldwin during rehearsal.

Halls, the safety coordinator on set, testified before jurors that the weapons supervisor, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who is currently on trial for manslaughter and evidence tampering, twice handed the revolver to Alec Baldwin. Halls stated that the weapon was initially emptied of bullets, then loaded again with dummy rounds and a live round.

On the 20th of October, 2021, Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer of "Rust," unintentionally fired the gun, fatally shooting Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza. Baldwin, who was separately indicted by a grand jury last month, is scheduled to face trial in July.

During questioning by the prosecution, Halls revealed that he did not witness Gutierrez-Reed taking the gun from Baldwin, but she later informed him that she had loaded dummy rounds into the revolver. Halls provided a vivid account of standing only 3 feet away from Hutchins when the single gunshot rang out. As she lay on the ground, Halls asked if she was alright, to which she responded, "I can't feel my legs."

Overwhelmed with emotions, Halls rushed out of a makeshift church on the set to ensure that someone called 911. He expressed his disbelief at how a live round could have been fired and returned to the church to retrieve the gun from a pew. Halls then had it unloaded by a crew member and inspected the ammunition.

The testimony of Halls, who previously pleaded no contest to negligent use of a firearm and completed unsupervised parole, could play a crucial role as prosecutors reconstruct the sequence of events and determine who was responsible for the ammunition that led to the tragic shooting.

Halls described a basic safety check, where Gutierrez-Reed opened a latch on the revolver, revealing three or four dummy rounds. She then handed the gun to Baldwin. Gutierrez-Reed, who has pleaded not guilty, has not testified yet but reportedly told investigators that she left the loaded gun in Halls' hands before leaving the church.

Contradicting initial statements, Baldwin claimed that Gutierrez-Reed handed him the gun, but he later stated that it was Halls who gave it to him. The actor maintains that he pulled back the hammer but did not pull the trigger.

Halls admitted on the witness stand that he was negligent in properly checking the gun due to his failure to examine all the rounds inside. When asked why he chose to testify, Halls expressed the importance of revealing the truth for Hutchins' family, the cast, crew, and the motion picture and television industry to prevent such incidents from recurring.

Defense attorneys argue that problems on the set were beyond Gutierrez-Reed's control and point to deficiencies in evidence collection and interviews. They also emphasized the need for a thorough investigation into the main ammunition supplier.

Prosecutors, on the other hand, hold Gutierrez-Reed accountable for bringing live ammunition to the set and for treating basic safety protocols as optional. They allege that six live rounds found bear identical characteristics and do not match those obtained from the movie's supplier in Albuquerque.

In additional testimony, Sarah Zachry, a movie props supervisor who assisted in managing weapons on set, admitted to discarding dummy ammunition rounds from two guns in a state of shock and panic immediately after the shooting. She later informed law enforcement about her actions.

As the trial proceeds, the conflicting accounts presented by witnesses continue to shape the narrative of the Rust shooting incident, leaving the court and the public eagerly awaiting further evidence and testimonies that will shed light on the unfortunate tragedy.