Alec Baldwin to be charged with involuntary manslaughter in fatal shooting on Rust film set

The actor Alec Baldwin is facing criminal charges of involuntary manslaughter over the fatal film-set shooting of a cinematographer during a rehearsal of the western film Rust, according to prosecutors.

The Santa Fe district attorney, Mary Carmack-Altwies, announced the charges and plea deal on Thursday in a statement and on social media, without public appearances by prosecutors. Carmack-Altwies said the charges against both Baldwin and Gutierrez Reed had not yet been filed on Thursday, but would be before the end of January.

An attorney for Gutierrez Reed, Jason Bowles, said Thursday that he believed jurors would acquit his client of wrongdoing.

Hutchins died shortly after being shot during setup for a scene at a ranch on the outskirts of Santa Fe on 21 October 2021. Baldwin was pointing a pistol at Hutchins when the gun went off, killing her and wounding Souza.

Taking control of the investigation, Carmack-Altwies was granted an emergency $300,000 request for the state to pay for a special prosecutor, special investigator and other experts and personnel.

In his lawsuit, Baldwin said that while working on camera angles with Hutchins during rehearsal for a scene, he pointed the gun in her direction and pulled back and released the hammer of the gun, which discharged.

The occupational health and safety bureau in New Mexico has levied the maximum fine against Rust Movie Productions, based on a scathing narrative of safety failures, including testimony that production managers took limited or no action to address two misfires of blank ammunition on set before the fatal shooting.

Rust Movie Productions continues to challenge the basis of a $137,000 fine by regulators who say production managers on the set failed to follow standard industry protocols for firearms safety.

Gutierrez Reed in particular has been the subject of much of the scrutiny in the case, along with an independent ammunition supplier. An attorney for Gutierrez Reed has said the armorer did not put a live round in the gun that killed Hutchins, and believes she was the victim of sabotage. Authorities said they had found no evidence of that.

The Associated Press contributed reporting