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Alec Baldwin will be charged with involuntary manslaughter after discharging a gun on the set of “Rust,” resulting in the death of the film’s cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins. The film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, responsible for handling gun safety on set, will also be facing charges.
Prosecutors in New Mexico charged Baldwin with two counts of involuntary manslaughter. They claim Baldwin should have checked the gun he was handling and that he should have never pointed it at a person. “You should not point a gun at someone that you’re not willing to shoot,” said Mary Carmack-Altwies, the district attorney for Santa Fe County. “That goes to basic safety standards.”
Baldwin was a producer and a lead actor of “Rust” and has denied culpability since the accident occured. “Someone is responsible for what happened, and I can’t say who that is, but I know it’s not me,” he said in a TV interview last year. Baldwin claimed that he’d been following instructions while in set, including where to point the gun; when the gun went off, Hutchins was killed and the film’s director, Joel Souza, was injured.
Following the release of the charges, Baldwin’s lawyer shared a statement claiming that the charges would be fought, and that Baldwin was not guilty. “This decision distorts Halyna Hutchins’s tragic death and represents a terrible miscarriage of justice. Mr. Baldwin had no reason to believe there was a live bullet in the gun — or anywhere on the movie set. He relied on the professionals with whom he worked, who assured him the gun did not have live rounds. We will fight these charges, and we will win.”
Following the incident, the film set has received multiple lawsuits, including accusations from crew members claiming that the production was not sticking to the proper safety protocols. Crew members also claimed the film had budget constraints, which resulted in employees carrying out multiple jobs.