Grand jury in New Mexico charged the actor for a shooting on Rust set that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins

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.

  • RedAggroBest@lemmy.world
    263·
    11 months ago

    Because they were doing a camera test. The gun was drawn and pointed in the direction of the camera, which had people behind it because there weren’t supposed to be live rounds in the gun.

    I thought this had been settled that it was the fault of the master amorer who was wholly unqualified to be doing the job.

    • BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world
      52·
      11 months ago

      There is blame from the armorer for sure, but I thought I heard something about real guns being on set to shoot for practice. Don’t take my word on that. If that was the case I do think Alec should take part of the blame, because real weapons have no place on a set. If you want actors to have target practice you take them to a gun range.

        • chaogomu@kbin.social
          3·
          11 months ago

          The set was not meant to have any live ammo. It was a “cold” set.

          The live ammo actually came from the prop supply company, co-mingled with dummy rounds.

          The live rounds were re-loads into casings that would normally be dummy rounds, because a previous film used them to train the actors how to react to live fire from their guns.

          The live rounds were then turned over to the prop company at the end of that film, and at some point became co-mingled with dummy rounds and then sent out to the Rust film location.

          The armorer should have checked every dummy round. But didn’t even know how to do so. The re-loads were also slightly different looking than the standard dummy round. (red paint in the logo vs blue for the dummy)

          As a note, when questioned by police, the armorer didn’t even know the name brand of the dummy rounds.

          • Ook the Librarian@lemmy.world
            3·
            11 months ago

            I’m sorry. I don’t mean to sound rude. That didn’t address my question. I do appreciate all those facts gathered concisely.

            My question was more to the tune of: Did Baldwin have any reason to doubt the common assumption

            The set was not meant to have any live ammo. It was a “cold” set.

            It seems if the first Baldwin ever heard of this rule being broken was at the moment of the accident, then I can’t see how anyone argues that he should be accountable. But I was asking is there any paper trail or something where he was complaining about the armorer or something?

            • chaogomu@kbin.social
              3·
              11 months ago

              The set was cold.

              There was no reason anyone would have expected live rounds, because live rounds are legally banned on movie sets.

              Especially live rounds in Starline Brass casings, because Starline Brass doesn’t make live rounds, they only make dummy rounds.

              The bullet that Baldwin fired was from a Starline Brass casing, and had the logo on the end next to the primer.

              https://variety.com/2021/film/news/rust-investigators-live-rounds-alec-baldwin-1235122384/

              This has all been known for years. The round looked like a dummy, but was not.

              • Ook the Librarian@lemmy.world
                1·
                11 months ago

                You sound like you’re trying to convince me of something. I only asked a question. Just to be clear, is your answer “no”?

                • chaogomu@kbin.social
                  1·
                  11 months ago

                  There are a lot of people in this thread who are ignoring reality, and thinking that a movie set is a gun range.

                  So yeah. I’m basically saying the same thing over and over again.

      • RedAggroBest@lemmy.world
        1·
        11 months ago

        There weren’t supposed to be any ammo capable of fire. The round was even a fucking reload of a dummy casing that went untested because the armorer was an incompetent idiot who got someone killed.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
      13·
      11 months ago

      Who was hired by Baldwin, and who complained to Baldwin that he wasn’t letting her do her job. She was unqualified and she still identified the dangerous situation. The biggest problem for her was not resigning in protest.

      • chaogomu@kbin.social
        31·
        11 months ago

        Baldwin didn’t hire the armorer, she got the job through family connections.

        She was also incompetent. She didn’t know how to test the dummy rounds to see if they were live, she didn’t know the name brand on the dummy rounds.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
          2·
          11 months ago

          Yeah her family connection got the producers, including Baldwin, to hire her. That doesn’t mean he had no control. It means he put nepotism over safety.

          • chaogomu@kbin.social
            21·
            11 months ago

            Baldwin didn’t hire anyone. He was one of 10 producers, and was listed as being in charge of funding and script changes.

            And yes, family connections did play a big role here, the armorer is the daughter of an armorer who has worked on hundreds of films and TV shows.

            And she didn’t even know the brand name Starline Brass when questioned by police.

            That alone is a major red flag, because Starline Brass is the company that makes all the dummy rounds used on movie sets. They do not make live rounds, and yet, the round that Baldwin shot, was in a Starline Brass casing.

            The story of that has been known for 3 years now.

            https://variety.com/2021/film/news/rust-investigators-live-rounds-alec-baldwin-1235122384/

            • Maggoty@lemmy.world
              1·
              11 months ago

              They do not make live rounds, and yet, the round that Baldwin shot, was in a Starline Brass casing.

              Yeah, see that? It shouldn’t even be possible. Unless you’re talking about blanks and not dummy rounds. Dummy rounds should be completely unable to fire, or be made to fire without a metal shop involved.

              And yeah. Nobody is saying she was qualified. But the fact that she wasn’t replaced after the first 2 negligent discharges on set is a leadership problem. The fact that people walked off the set because they felt unsafe and even the unqualified armorer herself raised concerns about how leadership was using the guns is a leadership problem.

              And Baldwin being that leadership, is responsible.

              • chaogomu@kbin.social
                11·
                11 months ago

                Did you read the link?

                It walks through how some Starline Bass casings were loaded with live ammo, and then ended up on a film set where there should not have been any live ammo at all.

                As to the armorer, yes, she was incompetent. That’s the whole point here. The hiring director (who was not Baldwin) took a chance on someone who had past safety issues on her only other film, because she was the daughter of a well respected armorer.

                She didn’t know how to check the bullets to see if they were dummy rounds (completely fake, but realistic looking) or live rounds.

                I know the article says blanks, but from everything I’ve found online, there weren’t even blanks on the set of Rust. Just dummy rounds, and a few live rounds that snuck in via a coffee can full of co-mingled rounds from a previous film.

                • Maggoty@lemmy.world
                  1·
                  11 months ago

                  That literally shouldn’t be possible with dummy rounds. They should be a solid block inside so it’s impossible to load with powder. If that’s true then Starline deserves to be sued into oblivion.

                  I think you’re mistaking blank rounds for dummy rounds. Also a quick look at their website shows they sell brass. Brass for reloading, for live, for blanks, or for creating your own dummies.

                  Again, there is no way to test a round to see if it’s a dummy short of attempting to fire it. Normal ones are a completely different color or even transparent for this reason. Obviously that doesn’t work in filming.

                  As to which producer is culpable, Baldwin absolutely could have fired her and was part of violating safety protocols by ignoring complaints he could have addressed directly and immediately.