Criminal charges have been dropped against Emmy-award winner Alec Baldwin over the fatal on-set shooting on “Rust” according to his lawyers and BBC News.
Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed by a live bullet fired from a prop gun that Baldwin was using in October 2021 during the filming of “Rust” in New Mexico.
Baldwin had been practising firing the gun on set at a ranch near Santa Fe when it went off, fatally striking Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.
The actor denied pulling the trigger, but an FBI report later concluded the gun could not have been fired without the trigger being pulled. He was charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter over the shooting.
Baldwin’s lawyer tells the outlet: “We are pleased with the decision to dismiss the case against Alec Baldwin, and we encourage a proper investigation into the facts and circumstances of this tragic accident.”
The film’s armourer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, is also facing two counts of involuntary manslaughter, and it’s not clear if the charges, in that case, will also be dropped. Her lawyer tells AP News they “fully expect at the end of this process that Hannah will also be exonerated”.
The Los Angeles Times reports that prosecutors recently learned that the gun used in the shooting had been modified with a new trigger in a way that could have made a misfire more likely.
In order to have been found guilty, prosecutors would have had to convince a jury that Baldwin had acted with “criminal negligence”. If convicted, he could have faced up to eighteen months in prison.
The news of the dropped charges comes less than two weeks before a trial was set to begin and the same day that “Rust” resumed filming.
New rules on the set bar any use of working weapons and any form of ammunition. Baldwin is currently filming on location in Montana, and the scene that was being rehearsed when Hutchins was shot has now been rewritten.
The shooting has left an impact on some filmmakers, including Guy Ritchie who tells Variety his new Jake Gyllenhaal-led film “The Covenant” was entirely filmed with Airsoft pellet weapons in place of real guns which he will no longer use on sets.
Source: BBC News
