Alec Baldwin to be charged in fatal ‘Rust’ shooting

Buildings at the Bonanza Creek Ranch film set, seen on October 28, 2021.

As a prosecutor pursues involuntary manslaughter charges against actor Alec Baldwin and the armorer from the set of the film “Rust,” the tragic on-set shooting has renewed discussions about safety in Hollywood productions.

The death of 42-year-old Halyna Hutchins is the latest on-set tragedy for an industry that strives for safety while also portraying action-packed stories.

There have been multiple cases of crew members and stunt people dying at work, including a woman who died performing stunts on the set of “Deadpool 2” in 2017.

Cast members have also died from accidents during production including:

Brandon Lee

The son of the renowned martial arts master and actor Bruce Lee, the 28-year-old was filming the final scenes of the movie “The Crow” when he died after being shot with a prop gun in 1993.

Dummy bullets had been replaced with cardboard wadding, but a bullet fragment had broken off and remained in the gun. That metal tip from the dummy bullet hit Lee’s abdomen.

Lee’s family released a statement following Hutchins death.

Jon-Erik Hexum

Jon-Erik Hexum became famous in 1982 after snagging the lead role of Phineas Bogg in the NBC series “Voyagers!”

The tall and strikingly handsome actor was a rising star and soon cast to play Mac Harper, a CIA operative posing as a male model in the TV series “Cover Up.”

While filming, Hexum reportedly was playing around with a prop gun from a scene and shot himself in the head.

Vic Morrow

Victor Morrow was tragically killed while filming “Twilight Zone: The Movie” in 1982.

The actor and two child actors, 7-year-old Myca Dinh Le and 6-year-old Renee Shin-Yi Chen, were being filmed fleeing from a Vietnamese village during the Vietnam war while a US Army helicopter hovered over them.

The chopper crashed following a pyrotechnic explosion, landing on Morrow, 53, and the children, who also died.

The film’s director, the pilot and three others were charged with involuntary manslaughter. They were all acquitted following a high-profile trial that lasted almost nine months.

Lisa Torraco, the attorney of assistant director Dave Halls, released the following statement Thursday.

Halls, who handed the gun to Alec Baldwin before the fatal shooting, signed a plea agreement “for the charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon,” the district attorney’s office announced Thursday. Prosecutors said the terms of that deal include six months of probationand a suspended sentence.

In October 2021, a group gathered to film on the set for the Old Western-style movie “Rust” at Bonanza Creek Ranch outside Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Fifteen months later, cinematographer Halyna Hutchins is dead, director Joel Souza was injured and two people, including star actor Alec Baldwin, face criminal charges. Another has already agreed to a plea deal on a charge with no recommended prison time.

Here’s a look at the key people on the set of the movie when the fatal gunshot was fired:

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Prosecutors plan to charge actor Alec Baldwin with involuntary manslaughter in the deadly 2021 “Rust” film shooting. Set armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed will also be charged.

If you haven’t been following the story, you can start byreading this timeline of how the on-set tragedy unfolded. And here’s a roundup of today’s major developments:

CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig

CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said the “Rust” fatal shooting case is not clear-cut negligence and includes factual issues.

First of all, Honig said, New Mexico First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies told CNN that she doesn’t know — and “we might not ever know” — how live rounds got onto the set.

Secondly, the incident happened on a movie set, and “most normal people do not know what the norms are on a movie set,” he said.

So the expertise of prop masters are heavily relied upon, but even those experts have different views on what the obligations of actors and crew members are on set, Honig said.

“Remember, this is a criminal case. You need all 12 jurors to find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. So I’m not saying that there’s no chance here, but this is a really difficult case for the prosecution,” he added.

Honig also said he was “stunned” that the district attorney decided to charge Alec Baldwin as both an actor and producer.

“The question about a producer — that gets into the questions of what exactly was Alec Baldwin’s job, what were his responsibilities as it relates to the many other directors, producers, professionals on that set — and look, sometimes people are producers in name … but are not actually in charge of things in a hands-on way,” he continued.

“All of these are complex factual issues. … This is not a civil proceeding. This is a criminal proceeding. There is the highest burden in our legal system on prosecutors. They have to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt and unanimously to the jury. It’s never easy, and I think it’s going to be particularly difficult here,” he added.

Alec Baldwin speaks during an event in December 2021 in New York.

Actor Alec Baldwin and his legal team feel “blindsided” by today’s charges, his attorney Luke Nikas told CNN in a statement Thursday.

They were not given any indication Baldwin would face criminal charges and say they “learned of the charges in the media,” according to Nikas.

In her first televised interview after announcing the charging decisions, New Mexico’s First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies told CNN’s Josh Campbell her office was in “almost constant contact” with the opposing parties’ attorneys “for about the last six weeks.”

Earlier Thursday, Nikas said the decision to charge “distorts Halyna Hutchins’ tragic death and represents a terrible miscarriage of justice.”

“Mr. Baldwin had no reason to believe there was a live bullet in the gun — or anywhere on the movie set. He relied on the professionals with whom he worked, who assured him the gun did not have live rounds. We will fight these charges, and we will win,” Nikas said.

Many other actors have said they “always check their guns or have someone check it front of them,” New Mexico First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies told CNN shortly after announcing her intention of charging actor Alec Baldwin and film armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed with involuntary manslaughter.

She noted that some of those actors were even “A-list” celebrities.

“An actor does not get a free pass just because they are an actor. That is what is so important. We are saying here in New Mexico, that everyone is equal under the law,” she added.

Carmack-Altwies said there were live rounds mixed in with dummy rounds and crews were not checking ammunition regularly.

Somehow, a live round got loaded into the gun that was handed to Baldwin.

Baldwin failing to check the gun before firing it is a key piece of information that prosecutors are using to argue that he was negligent about the safety standard, Carmack-Altwies said. Negligence is an important part of the involuntary manslaughter charge, according to CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams.

Overall, there was a “lack of safety and safety standards on set,” the district attorney said.

Candles are lighted during a vigil for late cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in California in October 2021.

The family of Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer killed on the “Rust” movie set, said they support the charges that are expected to be filed against actor Alec Baldwin and film armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed.

“It is a comfort to the family that, in New Mexico, no one is above the law,” according to the statement.

Attorney Brian J. Panish, on behalf of the Hutchins family, issued the following statement:

The deadly shooting on the set of “Rust” in Santa Fe, New Mexico, took place in October 2021.

The film set shooting resulted in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins after she was struck by a live round of ammunition fired from a prop gun held by Alec Baldwin.

Here’s a look at the scene following the shooting:

A prop cart rests by the scene of the shooting at the Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe on October 21.

Evidence markers are seen around the scene of the shooting.

A gun and ammunition are seen in a prop cart near the shooting scene.

Police officers respond at the scene of the shooting.

Alec Baldwin is seen on the set of "Rust" following the shooting on October 21, 2021, in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The New Mexico district attorney who plans to charge actor Alec Baldwin and the “Rust” set armorer with involuntary manslaughter charges says the pair will not be arrested ahead of their first court appearances.

District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said she will formally file the charges against Baldwin and the armorer, Hannah Gutierrez Reed, “before the end of this month.”

“We will not be asking for an arrest,” the district attorney told CNN’s Josh Campbell.

“We’ll send out what’s called a summons. From that, the court will set what’s called a first appearance, or, it’s basically an arraignment. And at that point they will either have to come here (to New Mexico) or they might do a video arraignment, we have been doing those since Covid, and they will get their conditions of release and enter not guilty pleas.”

The prosecutor told Campbell her office does not plan to charge anyone else in connection with the case.