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The Santa Fe County district attorney plans to announce Thursday whether her office will file charges related to the shooting death of Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer who was killed last year when a gun in the hand of actor Alec Baldwin went off in the movie set. Oxide.
Alec Baldwin Speaks Out For The First Time About The Accidental Shooting That Killed The Cinematographer … [+]
key facts
New Mexico 1st Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies and Special Counsel Andrea Reeb will announce the decision via written statement Thursday at 11 am ET.
In September, the New Mexico Board of Finance awarded the prosecutor’s office more than $300,000 to be used to potentially prosecute up to four people in connection with Hutchins’ death, and the request for the funds said that “one of the potential defendants He is the well-known film actor Alec Baldwin.
Much of the investigation focused on Baldwin, an actor and producer on the film who was holding the gun when it went off, though he claimed he did not pull the trigger, as well as assistant director Dave Halls, who is said to have told him Baldwin the gun was safe to use, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed the production gunsmith and ammunition supplier Seth Kenney.
key background
Hutchins was murdered on set on October 21, 2021, during rehearsal. Live bullets were not supposed to be present anywhere on the set, and the guns in the movie were supposed to be filled with empty cartridges or dummy cartridges. But when the gun in Baldwin’s hand went off, Hutchins was shot in the chest and director Joel Souza was shot and wounded in the shoulder. Production was immediately halted while authorities investigated. It’s unclear how the live ammunition got onto the set. Baldwin has said he was told by people “inside the state” that he is “very unlikely” to be charged. Crew members have said there were gun safety issues on set and that there were two prior misfires, according to investigative records released by the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Department. DNA was collected from Baldwin, Halls, Gutierrez-Reed and Kenney. Interviews with staff members showed that some had questioned Gutierrez-Reed’s expertise, Baldwin’s willingness to participate in training and Halls’ disregard for safety, according to released investigative records. Halyna’s husband, Matthew Hutchins, sued Baldwin, Halls and Gutierrez-Reed and others for wrongful death, and the suit was settled in October for an undisclosed amount. production in Oxide will resume sometime this year, with Matthew Hutchins serving as executive producer on the project. The Santa Fe Sheriff’s Department completed its investigation in October, more than a year after the shooting occurred, and turned the case over to the prosecutor.
Other reading
The ‘Rust’ shooting, more than a year later: Everything you need to know (Forbes)
Sheriff’s Department releases investigation into ‘rust’ shooting, but no charges filed yet (Forbes)