Actor Alec Baldwin and a weapons specialist have been formally charged with involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on a New Mexico movie set ‘Rust’, according to court documents filed by prosecutors in the United States on Tuesday.
Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack Altwies filed the charging documents naming Baldwin and Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who supervised weapons on the set of the Western film Rust.
Investigators say Baldwin drew a revolver from a holster, pointed it at Hutchins and fired the weapon when a plastic or replica gun should have been used by industry standards.
Halyna Hutchins died shortly after being wounded during rehearsals at a ranch on the outskirts of Santa Fe on October 21, 2021. Baldwin was pointing a pistol at Hutchins when the gun went off, killing her and wounding the director, Joel Souza.
Prosecutors have said that Baldwin’s involvement as a producer and the person who fired the gun weighed in the decision to file charges.
The filing on Tuesday comes nearly two weeks after prosecutor Carmack-Altwies first announced that Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed would be prosecuted for what authorities have described as a pattern of criminal disregard for safety. In recent weeks, she outlined two sets of involuntary manslaughter charges in connection with the shooting.
The statement also says photos and videos of the rehearsal, including moments before the deadly shooting, showed Baldwin with his finger inside the trigger guard and on the trigger while manipulating the pistol’s hammer, and that an FBI analysis shows the pistol could not be fired without pulling the trigger.
Investigators say Baldwin failed to appear for mandatory firearms training prior to filming and that he did not fully complete on-set training while distracted by phone calls to family. They also cite several breaches of required safety checks and protocols as the gun was loaded and provided to Baldwin.
However, Baldwin and the weapons supervisor maintain their innocence.