Authorities have issued a search warrant for Alec Baldwin’s mobile phone, saying it could hold evidence that might be helpful as they investigate the shooting tragedy that killed a cinematographer and wounded the director.

Baldwin was holding a revolver during rehearsal when it fired on the New Mexico set of his Western movie Rust.

He has maintained it was cinematographer Halyna Hutchins who asked him to point the gun just off camera and toward her armpit before it went off.

Director Joel Souza also was wounded in the October 21 shooting on the Bonanza Creek Ranch film set near Santa Fe.

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Baldwin has said that at Hutchins’ direction he pulled the hammer back and it fired when he let go. He has said he did not know the gun contained a live round.

Investigators have described “some complacency” in how weapons were handled on the Rust set.

They have yet to file charges and have been working to determine where the live rounds found on set might have come from.

According to the search warrant affidavit, investigators are looking for any text messages, images, videos, calls or other information related to the movie production.

Court documents state that Baldwin told investigators in an interview that there were emails between himself and the film’s armourer Hanna Gutierrez Reed where she showed him different styles of guns and that he had requested a bigger gun. It ended up being a Colt revolver with a brown handle.

A brief search of Hutchins’ phone turned up conversations about the production that dated back to July, as well as photographs of receipts from businesses in Santa Fe, according to the affidavit.

Last week, Baldwin made his first public appearance since the Rust shooting. Accompanied by wife Hilaria, he was master of ceremonies at a charity event, the Ripple of Hope Award Gala, in New York City.

He also posted a lengthy open letter online, rejecting reports the film set was unsafe, despite Hutchins’ death.

The letter was signed by 25 people who worked on the film.

“The descriptions of Rust as a chaotic, dangerous, and exploitative workplace are false and distract from what matters the most: The memory of Halyna Hutchins, and the need to find modern alternatives to outdated industry firearm and safety practices,” it said.

-with AAP