US actor Alec Baldwin could be charged again in the fatal shooting on the set of the film “Rust” in 2021, prosecutors said on Tuesday, after manslaughter charges against the actor were officially dropped in April.
A grand jury, a citizens’ commission with investigative powers in the US, must decide in the next two months whether he will be charged again.
On October 21, 2021, the filming of the western “Rust” in New Mexico turned into drama when Alec Baldwin aimed a gun that was supposed to only contain empty bullets, but a very real projectile killed the camerawoman Halyna Hutchins and the director Joel Souza injured.
“Following an extensive investigation over the past several months, new facts have come to light that we believe establish Mr. Baldwin’s criminal complicity in the death of Halyna Hutchins and the shooting of Joel Souza,” District Attorney Kari Morrissey and District Attorney Jason Lewis said Tuesday .
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 denied pulling the trigger.
However, ballistics specialists hired by the prosecution concluded that Alec Baldwin must have applied some pressure on the trigger for the weapon to fire.
The film’s gunsmith, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, is already charged with involuntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence and has pleaded not guilty ahead of her trial scheduled for 2024.
Several civil lawsuits
In early October, the film’s producers were ordered to release certain documents, including Alec Baldwin’s contracts.
Prosecutors had argued before a judge that the information, including how Mr. Baldwin himself benefits financially from low production costs, could be relevant to the investigation.
Alec Baldwin and the film’s other producers are also facing multiple civil lawsuits from about ten people over the death of Halyna Hutchins.
Filming on Rust resumed in April in Montana, with Halyna Hutchins’ widower Matthew Hutchins serving as executive producer. In October 2022, he dropped the civil case against Alec Baldwin based on a settlement, the amount of which was not disclosed.