(CNN) — Actor-producer Alec Baldwin was charged Thursday with “involuntary manslaughter” in the deadly shooting on the set of “Rust,” the Santa Fe district attorney’s office said.
“’Rust’ actor and producer Alec Baldwin and gunsmith Hannah Gutierrez Reed will each be charged with two counts of manslaughter in the death of Halyna Hutchins on the set of the 2021 film in Santa County. Faith,” announced Mary Carmack-Altwies, New Mexico’s First Judicial District Attorney, Thursday morning.
The film’s assistant director, David Halls, has signed a plea agreement “on the charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon,” the prosecutor’s office also announced in its statement, adding that the terms of that agreement include six months Suspended probation.
No charges will be filed against director Joel Souza, the statement said.
Baldwin and his legal team “learned about the charges from the media”
Actor Alec Baldwin and his legal team were “shocked” by Thursday’s charges, attorney Luke Nikas told CNN.
They had no indication that Baldwin would face criminal charges, saying they “learned about the charges from the media.”
During her first television interview after announcing the charges, prosecutor Carmack-Altwies told CNN’s Josh Campbell that her office has been in “almost constant contact” with lawyers for opposing parties “for the last six weeks.”
“They didn’t know exactly what was coming, but they knew we were contemplating charges and they knew what they were,” he said.
In a prior written statement, Baldwin’s attorney said the decision to charge his client “distorts the tragic death of Halyna Hutchins.”
“Mr. Baldwin had no reason to believe there was a live bullet in the gun, or anywhere on the film set. He relied on the professionals he worked with, who assured him the gun had no bullets. We will fight these charges and we will win,” he said.
The filming set of “Rust”.
For his part, the lawyer for the gun company Gutiérrez Reed, Jason Bowles, issued a statement in which he stated that “they are absolutely wrong about Hannah: we expect a jury to find her not guilty and to conclude that she did not commit manslaughter. She has been shocked by the tragedy, but has not committed any crime.”
In March 2022, Gutierrez Reed had said she was not called to inspect the weapon that ultimately fired a live bullet, fatally wounding Hutchins. She issued the statement in response to a legal filing in which Baldwin said Hutchins told her to cock the gun.
“Mr. Baldwin knew that he could not point a firearm at team members under any circumstances and that he had a duty to protect his teammates,” Gutierrez Reed said.
“However, he pointed the gun at Halyna before the fatal incident against all rules and common sense,” he added.
The statement of the prosecutor Mary Carmack-Altwies
Prosecutor Mary Carmack-Altwies spoke with CNN’s Josh Campbell on Thursday about the decision to file charges in the case. According to her, there were a number of factors that contributed to the move, including “the lack of security and safety standards on that set, that there were firearms on the set that were mixed with dummy weapons.”
“Nobody was checking this, or at least not checking it consistently. And then somehow a gun was loaded with live bullets and delivered to Alec Baldwin; he didn’t check it, he didn’t do any of the things that were “He was supposed to do it to make sure he and the rest of the people around him were safe. And then he pointed the gun at Halyna Hutchins and pulled the trigger,” he said.
The fiscal Mary Carmack-Altwies.
“This was a really flexible set,” he said, adding: “Nobody was doing their job. There were three people who, if they had done their jobs that day, could have prevented this tragedy, and those are David Halls, Hannah Gutierrez Reed and Alec Baldwin. If they had done their basic homework, we wouldn’t be here.”
The facts
Baldwin was holding a gun in hand while rehearsing a scene for the film at New Mexico’s Bonanza Creek Ranch in October 2021 when a shot was fired, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.
Since then, the episode has unleashed a whirlwind of allegations of negligence by those involved. Baldwin maintains that he did not pull the trigger.
In the postmortem inquest summary into Hutchins’ death, which was formally signed by New Mexico’s chief medical investigator, the cause of death is listed as “gunshot wound to the chest” and the manner is listed as “accident.” .
