New York: 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.

Baldwin said in a police interview on October 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 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 on Thursday night, an attorney for Baldwin, Aaron Dyer, said: “We are confident that the evidence will show that Baldwin is not responsible civilly or criminally for what occurred on October 21.”