Alec Baldwin and armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed have been charged with involuntary manslaughter in the shooting on the set of the western film Rust that killed 42-year-old cinematographer Hayna Hutchins in October 2021.
"After a thorough review of the evidence and the laws of the state of New Mexico, I have determined that there is sufficient evidence to file criminal charges against Alec Baldwin and other members of the ‘Rust’ film crew,” Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said. "On my watch, no one is above the law, and everyone deserves justice."
The incident happened during a rehearsal, when Baldwin pointed a gun at the camera and allegedly fired. The shot first hit Hutchens, passing through her, and then director Joel Souza, who was injured but has recovered. The gun had a live round in it, instead of a blank.
Baldwin denies pulling the trigger, saying the gun went off accidentally, but the FBI studied the gun and released a forensic report last August that concluded the firearm couldn’t have gone off accidentally -- it could have only fired if someone had pulled the trigger.
The gun was handed to Baldwin by assistant director David Halls, who has accepted a misdemeanor charge in a plea deal.
Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office detectives found a mixture of blanks and live rounds scattered throughout the set during their initial investigation.
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed has repeatedly denied responsibility for the shooting and has filed suit against the props company that suppled the rounds, claiming they sold blanks and live ammo mixed together.
Rust was scheduled to resume filming this month, after a wrongful death settlement was reached with Hutchins' family last October, but that will likely be put on hold in light of the new charges. In February 2022 Baldwin began working on another film in England, that's now completed. He also has several films in pre-production, although he's claimed he's lost work because of what happened on the Rust set. ~Alexandra Heilbron
There was a wrongful death settlement so why are they still going after him? And what are live rounds being sold with blanks about. That alone is incompetence against the supplier. Go after them too. This whole thing was a real shame and I do feel sorry for the victim's family. Guns, real or otherwise, should never be played with.
The wrongful death suit was for the family, it wasn't a criminal proceeding. The charges laid are criminal charges. The same way OJ Simpson had a criminal trial and then had a civil wrongful death trial that the families launched. They're completely different. At the end of this, he could go to jail. In civil trials, you just have to pay money out to the family.
Wow!
This will be viewed as a farce. I like Baldwin, but the trial will totally make it look like the Hollywood celeb will get away with murder. There doesn't seem to be any dispute the prop gun was handed to him and the words signifying that the gun was checked and was safe is all going to boil down to the Prop Master and Armourer. Everyone claims to be an expert but the difference between a real observable difference between a bullet and the blank is just the blank is missing the projectile (bullet) at the tip. Even if he was handed the gun, opened the barrel and saw the bottom of the round, he would not have known it was a blank. He would only have been doing the check to see if it was loaded (obvs with blanks!) He is the talent and the director instructed him to point the gun and fire. I'm sorry but it's going to look like he will get away with murder because technically he didn't murder anyone. 99.99/100 of all the movies made with a few exceptions (cough cough The Crow) the props are all checked and deemed safe and the actor does what they're told. The very worst he will get is some sort of probation. He may have to retire from acting because he will lose a lot of his fan base, but I'm sure he will do just fine for himself in his retirement. He will have to live with the PTSD that he did what he's done a hundred times in movies, but this time he accidentally killed his friend and director. As for others..well, I'm sure everyone will get some sort of consequence for their actions all the way down to the props company and safety people who likely knew there were a mix of live and prop rounds all over the set to those 3 guys who were shooting bottles and cans on their down time! This was a complete mess of a film set.
Alec Baldwin is a jerk who will shoot you, put his feet up on your coffee table, and then elope with your cat. Don't let him into your home.
The only reason that the armorer is supposedly filing suit against the prop company is so obvious that it's pathetic. It's a sad attempt at deflecting attention away from themselves and dodge responsibility. Her lame attempt to shift the blame,she, obviously being the idiot that leaves live rounds scattered around a place that is actively shooting a movie , whether it be a break area used to hang out and shoot cans or directly on the set. Baldwin, as another person had commented, nothing at all significantly inconvenient will happen to him, maybe some symbolic slap on the wrist, but I doubt it. Although, my personal opinion is, I'd like to see him fry for it , just out of principle, because I personally despise the piece of shite , all 27 of his douchey Brothers,and that pathological liar wife/ partner /freak woman of his. Alec Baldwin must have a real talent at patronizing rich Jews because it is inconceivable that a idiot with no acting talent could have had such a successful career in movies when the only decent performance he ever managed was in Beetlejuice mid-90s. I was a teenager when that Burton film hit theaters,I thought he was great in it , of course, I was also a big fan of Jeffrey Jones for years, who played Charles Dietz the dad, I thought he was awesomeness in Amadeus, as Ferris's principal, even the underrated Howard the Duck. Then it comes out that he's a pedophile (Jeff Jones not Baldwin) or at least likes to save sexual images of kids. You never know what people are really about, especially rich and famous folk, You only get to see their true colors when someone catches them with their Probi-Prop-Mix-Master's panties down and Pistol up, aimed at a colleague they were pissed off at, probably intimidated by and most assuredly jealous of.
It’s all about lawyers, guns and money. If enough money flows towards the lawyers (and judges) then the guns involved won’t matter. They’ll all walk. (Except for maybe the low level guy/gal that doesn’t have any lawyers and money)
What did Baldwin have to gain by shooting these people ?