The scene Alec Baldwin was rehearsing when he fatally shot Halyna Hutchins on the set of the film “Rust” did not even require a gunshot, according to charging documents.
Baldwin, 64, was charged Tuesday with involuntary manslaughter in the death of Hutchins, the movie’s cinematographer who was shot dead at age 42 in October 2021.
Hutchins was shot while the crew was rehearsing a scene in which Baldwin’s character drew a revolver. However, “evidence indicates the scene/shot did not require the weapon to be fired,” police stated in court documents.
“It was also determined by consultation with expert armorers that in a rehearsal, a plastic gun or replica gun should be used as no firing of blanks is required.”
Baldwin faces up to five years in prison if convicted on the manslaughter charge. The film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, was also charged with involuntary manslaughter and faces the same sentence.
Prosecutors and investigators described a “fast and loose” environment on the “Rust” set at Bonanza Creek Ranch outside Santa Fe. Prior to Hutchins’ death, there were two accidental firearm discharges, one by prop master Sarah Zachary and another by an unidentified stunt double.
Police eventually found six “live” .45-caliber rounds on the set. One had been used in the fatal shooting. A second was found on Baldwin’s holster. Three more were found on the armorer’s cart, and the sixth was handed to police by Gutierrez-Reed.
Gutierrez-Reed and her father, veteran Hollywood armorer Thell Reed, had suggested the live rounds came from PDQ Arms and Prop, a business in Albuquerque. However, investigators tested PDQ’s bullets and determined they didn’t match the live rounds found on set.
Baldwin has maintained his innocence throughout the case. Less than two months after the shooting, he claimed in a television interview that he never pulled the trigger.
The FBI disputed that claim, and their analysis of the firearm was also referenced in the charging docs. The feds couldn’t find any way to make the gun fire without pulling the trigger. Investigators said video from the scene showed Baldwin’s finger on the trigger.
According to the documents, when authorities first arrived on the scene, Baldwin approached them and told them he was the one who “fired” the gun. It was only later that he claimed it had simply “gone off,” police said.
Baldwin was also implicated as a producer of the film. Investigators pointed out that Gutierrez-Reed, though she came from a well-known family, had only worked as an armorer on one previous film. The investigators cited numerous examples of safety lapses on set. Those issues caused the film’s first-choice camera crew to walk out one day before the shooting.
Gutierrez-Reed in turn said that Baldwin didn’t pay attention during his firearms training. A planned 60-90 minute session lasted only about 30 minutes, as Baldwin was otherwise preoccupied on his phone, she claimed.
Gutierrez-Reed’s attorneys have called the investigation “very flawed” and said they expect her to be cleared.
Assistant Director David Halls, who handed Baldwin the gun and declared it “cold” seconds before the shooting, has agreed to plead guilty to negligent use of a deadly weapon.
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If you are in a line with 100 people, and you watch every one of them check the firearm for loaded rounds, when the gun is finally handed to you, you check it yourself. PERIOD.
WE were shown in the navy, ALWAYS check yourself, EVEN IF YOU just watched someone hand it to you, AFTER checking it themselves… PERIOD!
Balwin two months after the shooting, he claimed in a television interview that he never pulled the trigger.
But he did say he cocked the hammer. If the hammer is not fully pulled back it will not engage, releasing it would make the hammer fall with the firing pin striking the chambered live round with enough pressure to possibly fire the round.
Half-wit Baldwin must have half-cocked the hammer and then let it drop, being the only explanation of the gun going off without him pulling the trigger which this woman abusing coward would have you believe. People were there that can testify what they saw if not paid off to keep quiet, and the family got paid off enough not to complain. Knowing the paucity of personal integrity of Alec Baldwin, and the history of his half-cocked temper tantrums, and probable misuse of drugs,,,, in his child-like mind, this political animal imagined himself to be the anthropomorphic image of a protagonist hero like horseface cartoon character Quickdraw McGraw, but in reality proved to all who really know him to be the genuine image of a real life jackask, don’t tell, cartoon comedic sidekick character of tragedy that McGraw used to called Baba Looey, who in Baldwn’s case should be called Ba Baloney when you hear all the lies he speaks. One of the main running gags in the Quickdraw shorts was him accidentally shooting himself with his own six-shooter, which would have been a much better ending to this real-life Baldwin tragedy.