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https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/19/arts/rust-shooting-charges-alec-baldwin.html
Alec Baldwin Will Be Charged With Involuntary Manslaughter in ‘Rust’ Killing
A gun that Mr. Baldwin was rehearsing with went off, killing the film’s cinematographer. The armorer responsible for weapons on set also faces manslaughter charges.
The actor Alec Baldwin will be charged with involuntary manslaughter for handling the gun that discharged on the set of “Rust,” killing its cinematographer, as will the movie’s armorer, who loaded the gun, prosecutors in New Mexico announced on Thursday.
Prosecutors said they would charge Mr. Baldwin with two counts of involuntary manslaughter, saying that he had a duty to ensure the gun and the ammunition were properly checked and that he should never have pointed it at anyone. “You should not point a gun at someone that you’re not willing to shoot,” the district attorney for Santa Fe County, Mary Carmack-Altwies, said in an interview. “That goes to basic safety standards.”
The criminal charges were a remarkable development in the career of Mr. Baldwin, 64, who has been a household name for decades — a leading man in films who hosted the Oscars and played Jack Donaghy in “30 Rock” and former President Donald J. Trump on “Saturday Night Live.”
Mr. Baldwin, both a producer and a lead actor in “Rust,” has long denied culpability for the shooting, noting that he had been told the weapon he was rehearsing with did not contain live ammunition and that he had no duty to check. “Someone is responsible for what happened, and I can’t say who that is, but I know it’s not me,” Mr. Baldwin said in a television interview last year. He has also said he had been simply following directions on where to point the gun when it went off, killing the film’s cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, and wounding its director, Joel Souza.
In a statement on Thursday, a lawyer for Mr. Baldwin, Luke Nikas, said: “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.”
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer who was responsible for the weapons on set and loaded the gun that day, will also be charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter. One of her lawyers, Jason Bowles, said his client was not responsible for involuntary manslaughter, calling the investigation into the case “flawed.”
In exchange for a suspended sentence, the film’s first assistant director, Dave Halls, who handed Mr. Baldwin the gun, agreed to a plea deal, admitting there was sufficient evidence to convict him of negligent use of a deadly weapon. A lawyer for Mr. Halls, Lisa Torraco, said in a statement that “he can now put this matter behind him and allow the focus of this tragedy to be on the shooting victims, their family and changing the industry so this type of accident will never happen again.”
The prosecutors said they had determined it was part of film industry standards for actors to ensure that the guns they use on set were safe for them to handle, saying they had interviewed several actors who spoke to the importance of those protocols. Mr. Baldwin has pushed back on that idea, saying that in his experience on film sets it was not the practice for actors to check their own guns.
Andrea Reeb, a special prosecutor on the case, said Ms. Gutierrez-Reed was also responsible for ensuring that the guns on the set did not contain live rounds, saying that she should have taken each round out of the gun and shaken them in front of the actor — a practice that helps confirm the rounds are dummies, inert cartridges used to resemble real bullets in a film.
“We’re trying to definitely make it clear that everybody’s equal under the law, including A-list actors like Alec Baldwin,” Ms. Reeb said. “And we also want to make sure that the safety of the film industry is addressed and things like this don’t happen again.”
If a jury found Mr. Baldwin or Ms. Gutierrez-Reed guilty, it would choose between the two manslaughter charges. The more serious one includes a firearm enhancement and a mandatory five-year sentence; the other charge carries a sentence of up to 18 months.
Alec Baldwin Will Be Charged With Involuntary Manslaughter in ‘Rust’ Killing
A gun that Mr. Baldwin was rehearsing with went off, killing the film’s cinematographer. The armorer responsible for weapons on set also faces manslaughter charges.
The actor Alec Baldwin will be charged with involuntary manslaughter for handling the gun that discharged on the set of “Rust,” killing its cinematographer, as will the movie’s armorer, who loaded the gun, prosecutors in New Mexico announced on Thursday.
Prosecutors said they would charge Mr. Baldwin with two counts of involuntary manslaughter, saying that he had a duty to ensure the gun and the ammunition were properly checked and that he should never have pointed it at anyone. “You should not point a gun at someone that you’re not willing to shoot,” the district attorney for Santa Fe County, Mary Carmack-Altwies, said in an interview. “That goes to basic safety standards.”
The criminal charges were a remarkable development in the career of Mr. Baldwin, 64, who has been a household name for decades — a leading man in films who hosted the Oscars and played Jack Donaghy in “30 Rock” and former President Donald J. Trump on “Saturday Night Live.”
Mr. Baldwin, both a producer and a lead actor in “Rust,” has long denied culpability for the shooting, noting that he had been told the weapon he was rehearsing with did not contain live ammunition and that he had no duty to check. “Someone is responsible for what happened, and I can’t say who that is, but I know it’s not me,” Mr. Baldwin said in a television interview last year. He has also said he had been simply following directions on where to point the gun when it went off, killing the film’s cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, and wounding its director, Joel Souza.
In a statement on Thursday, a lawyer for Mr. Baldwin, Luke Nikas, said: “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.”
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer who was responsible for the weapons on set and loaded the gun that day, will also be charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter. One of her lawyers, Jason Bowles, said his client was not responsible for involuntary manslaughter, calling the investigation into the case “flawed.”
In exchange for a suspended sentence, the film’s first assistant director, Dave Halls, who handed Mr. Baldwin the gun, agreed to a plea deal, admitting there was sufficient evidence to convict him of negligent use of a deadly weapon. A lawyer for Mr. Halls, Lisa Torraco, said in a statement that “he can now put this matter behind him and allow the focus of this tragedy to be on the shooting victims, their family and changing the industry so this type of accident will never happen again.”
The prosecutors said they had determined it was part of film industry standards for actors to ensure that the guns they use on set were safe for them to handle, saying they had interviewed several actors who spoke to the importance of those protocols. Mr. Baldwin has pushed back on that idea, saying that in his experience on film sets it was not the practice for actors to check their own guns.
Andrea Reeb, a special prosecutor on the case, said Ms. Gutierrez-Reed was also responsible for ensuring that the guns on the set did not contain live rounds, saying that she should have taken each round out of the gun and shaken them in front of the actor — a practice that helps confirm the rounds are dummies, inert cartridges used to resemble real bullets in a film.
“We’re trying to definitely make it clear that everybody’s equal under the law, including A-list actors like Alec Baldwin,” Ms. Reeb said. “And we also want to make sure that the safety of the film industry is addressed and things like this don’t happen again.”
If a jury found Mr. Baldwin or Ms. Gutierrez-Reed guilty, it would choose between the two manslaughter charges. The more serious one includes a firearm enhancement and a mandatory five-year sentence; the other charge carries a sentence of up to 18 months.
