On October 21, 2021, the filming of the western “Rust” turned into a tragedy when Alec Baldwin killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza with a weapon supposed to contain only blank bullets.
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American actor Alec Baldwin could face a new charge in the case of the fatal shooting on the set of the film Rust in 2021, prosecutors announced, after charges against the actor for manslaughter were formally dropped in April. A grand jury, a commission of citizens vested with investigative powers in the United States, must decide in the next two months whether or not to indict him again. October 21, 2021, the filming of the western Rust in New Mexico turned into a tragedy when Alec Baldwin aimed a weapon supposed to contain only blank bullets, but a very real projectile killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza.
“After an extensive investigation over the past several months, new facts have emerged that we believe demonstrate Mr. Baldwin’s criminal culpability in the death of Halyna Hutchins and the shooting of Joel Souza,” prosecutors Kari Morrissey and Jason Lewis said on Tuesday, October 18. Alec Baldwin has maintained his innocence from the start. The 65-year-old actor has always maintained that he was assured that his weapon was harmless and also denies having pulled the trigger. But ballistics experts hired by prosecutors concluded that Alec Baldwin must have applied some pressure on the trigger for the gun to fire.
Several civil complaints
The film’s gunsmith, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, already faces charges of involuntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence, to which she has pleaded not guilty ahead of her trial scheduled for 2024. In early October , the film’s producers were ordered to hand over certain documents, including Alec Baldwin’s contracts. Prosecutors had argued before a judge that this information, including how “Mr. Baldwin himself benefits financially from low production costs”, could be relevant to the investigation. Alec Baldwin and the other producers of the film also face several civil complaints from around ten plaintiffs for the death of Halyna Hutchins.
The filming of Rust had resumed in April in Montana, with Halyna Hutchins’ widower, Matthew, as executive producer. In October 2022, he dropped civil proceedings against Alec Baldwin following an agreement, the amount of which was not disclosed.