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Grand jury in New Mexico charged the actor for a shooting on Rust set that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins
Actor Alec Baldwin is facing a new involuntary manslaughter charge over the 2021 fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of the movie Rust.
A Santa Fe, New Mexico, grand jury indicted Baldwin on Friday, months after prosecutors had dismissed the same criminal charge against him.
During an October 2021 rehearsal on the set of Rust, a western drama, Baldwin was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins when it went off, fatally striking her and wounding Joel Souza, the film’s director.
Baldwin, a co-producer and star of the film, has said he did not pull the trigger, but pulled back the hammer of the gun before it fired.
Last April, special prosecutors dismissed the involuntary manslaughter charge against Baldwin, saying the firearm might have been modified prior to the shooting and malfunctioned and that forensic analysis was warranted. But in August, prosecutors said they were considering re-filing the charges after a new analysis of the weapon was completed.
Why would you point a gun, prop or otherwise, blanks or otherwise, at the cinematographer when cameras aren’t rolling?
it’s called a camera test.
Baldwin, the cinematographer and the director were all working through blocking (the movements needed for when the camera would be actually rolling).
The camera was in position, and the cinematographer and director were both looking through the monitors to adjust lighting and such.
This is all very standard stuff, and if one of the dummy rounds hadn’t actually been a reload of live ammo, it would have remained standard.
This talks about how the live ammo made it onto the set.
https://variety.com/2021/film/news/rust-investigators-live-rounds-alec-baldwin-1235122384/
Baldwin could have looked at the logos on the bullets, seen the Starline Brass, and assumed that they were all dummy rounds. Only 5 of the 6 were.
Who the hell knows. He claims he was rehearsing the scene, which seems plausible. The scene being filmed would have resulted in the same injury and death, so cameras rolling doesn’t seem to be an important aspect.
A better questions would be why TF the industry as a whole allows people in the path of the barrel, why they insist on using firearms with blanks, and why acting staff aren’t given training on any weapon they will handle so they know how to properly inspect them.