It has been two years since the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of western film “Rust.” During that time, police investigators have been trying to determine exactly what happened. Prosecutors had previously tried to charge the film’s star and executive producer Alec Baldwin with involuntary manslaughter for firing the gun that killed Hutchins and wounded wounded director Joel Souza. Those charges were eventually dropped pending further investigation.
Prosecutors have obtained new evidence they believe may shed new light on whether or not Baldwin was at fault. With this evidence in hand, the prosecution team is aiming to go back to the grand jury to seek an indictment. For those not familiar with a grand jury, it’s essentially a panel of citizens that determine whether or not prosecutors have enough evidence to proceed with a criminal case.
Baldwin has taken defensive actions in the wake of the shooting, including the choice to sue members of the crew for negligence. Included among those crew members are armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed and assistant director David Halls. Gutierrez-Reed has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter and evidence tampering. Halls plead no contest for unsafe handling of a firearm, in a deal that prevented him from being named in other suits at the time.
Meanwhile, Baldwin has denied any wrong doing. He claims to have pulled back the hammer on the revolver, but did not “touch the trigger.”
The main reason the aforementioned involuntary manslaughter charges were dropped was because an examination of the revolver indicated the gun may have been modified. These modifications could’ve altered the quality of the gun and caused some kind of misfire. The FBI has maintained the gun could not have gone off without the trigger being pulled.
It would appear that “additional facts” are coming to light surrounding what happened after further analysis of the gun was completed.
Often times when something goes horribly wrong on the set of a film, the fault is rarely just with one person. It’s important though that all people involved take responsibility for their actions. While the gun Baldwin was holding should not have had live ammunition in it, the argument can be made that he never should’ve cocked the hammer and been pointing it at anyone when filming wasn’t taking place. Whether that rises to a criminal level of negligence will be up to the legal process to decide.
