American actor Alec Baldwin was once again charged with manslaughter, after a fatal shooting on the set of the film Rust in 2021, the prosecutor in charge of the investigation announced on Friday. The proceedings against him were formally dropped in April, in this case with multiple twists and turns, but the prosecution warned at the time that the actor was not exonerated and remained likely to be implicated again. .
On October 21, 2021, the filming of the western Rust in New Mexico (southwest of the United States) turned into drama when Alec Baldwin pointed a weapon supposed to contain only blank bullets, but in which a very real projectile had killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza. This rare news item shocked Hollywood and provoked calls to ban firearms on sets.
The 65-year-old actor, who faces 18 months in prison if convicted, has maintained his innocence from the start. He has always maintained that he was assured that his weapon was harmless and also denies pulling the trigger.
But the investigation, marked by multiple weaknesses on the side of the prosecution and which saw several prosecutors succeed one another, has still not succeeded in determining with certainty what really happened: the whole question is know if the Colt. 45 held by Alec Baldwin may or may not have triggered alone. “We look forward to our appearance in court,” responded his lawyers, Luke Nikas and Alex Spiro, in a press release.
In her press release announcing the new indictment, the prosecutor in charge of the case did not explain her decision. But according to Variety magazine, a new assessment of the weapon in question, carried out this summer, concluded that it could only have been triggered by pressing the trigger. Broken during tests carried out by the FBI during the initial investigation, this pistol had to be rebuilt and was the subject of conflicting expert opinions.
The film’s gunsmith, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, is also charged with manslaughter in the case and her trial is scheduled to begin February 21. During the initial investigation, the police concluded that it was she who had put the ammunition in the weapon used by Alec Baldwin, instead of a dummy bullet. The investigation never determined how live ammunition could have ended up on set, where only blank bullets are allowed.
Filming on Rust officially resumed in March in Montana, with Halyna Hutchins’ widower Matthew serving as executive producer. At the end of 2022, he abandoned the civil proceedings he had initiated against Alec Baldwin at the end of an agreement the amount of which was not disclosed. At the time, he believed that his wife’s death was “a terrible accident”, according to a press release.
