The Santa Fe County district attorney's office has formally charged actor Alec Baldwin. Prosecutors filed the charges in a New Mexico district court Tuesday afternoon.
Baldwin is accused of involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the movie โRust.โ Hutchins died while paramedics transported her to Albuquerque's University of New Mexico Hospital.
Besides mortally wounding Hutchins, the live round discharged from the revolver injured the film's director.
As the New York Post reports:
A damning document filed by prosecutors claimed Baldwin was distracted during firearms training, didn't need to have a loaded gun during a rehearsal and made a โreckless deviation from known standards and practiceโ by firing the weapon, which had been accidentally loaded with a real bullet.
The โ30 Rockโ actor, 64, and Hannah Gutierrez-Reed โ the movie's armorer โ were each hit with two felony counts of involuntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter in the commission of a lawful act, according to a complaint filed in New Mexico First Judicial Tuesday.
Hutchins โ a 42-year-old married mother โ was fatally shot in New Mexico on the film set on Oct. 21, 2021 when Baldwin fired a prop gun with a live round. Director Joel Souza, was also injured in the accident.
The Statement of Probable Cause by the Santa Fe County District attorney included various errors which led to the accident and made point to note Baldwin was the primary producer on the movie in addition to lead actor.
Despite repeatedly denying culpability, prosecutors believe Baldwin failed to follow basic on-set gun safety.
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3 Comments
You do realize this is very old news
Everyone who touched that gun should be culpable. Standard policy for the safe handling of any fire arm ALWAYS ASSUME ALL FIRE ARMS TO BE LOADED. It is up to you to check the firearm and assure it is unloaded if not, unload it. Simple logic.
Appropriate Charges for what occurred. As Producer, Baldwin is ultimately responsible for everything going on with the movie. He cut corners. Hired an inexperienced Armorer with safety violations on previous sets, and chose not to hire an NRA Safety Inspector to monitor gun safety due to his blind hatred for that organization.
What possessed them to use functional weapons on this movie? Why weren’t blank firing replicas used? Who thought it would be a good idea to let the crew target practice with live ammunition on the set when not filming? There shouldn’t have been a live round within a mile of the set.