Alec Baldwin To Be Charged With Involuntary Manslaughter In 'Rust' Shooting Death

On Jan. 19, 2023, Santa Fe County District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies and special prosecutor Andrea Reeb announced that Alec Baldwin and armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed will both be charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter for the on-set death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

In October 2021, Baldwin, 64, was handling a loaded gun that killed Hutchins, 42, and injured director Joel Souza, 49, on the set of the film Rust in New Mexico.

According to PEOPLE, assistant director David Halls signed a plea agreement for the charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon.

In early 2022, Mamie Mitchell, the script supervisor, brought a lawsuit against Baldwin and several others who worked on the production of the movie. In November 2022, Baldwin filed a cross-complaint alleging negligence against some of the people sued by Mitchell, including Guttierez-Reed, Halls, prop master Sarah Zachry, and ammunition supplier Seth Kenney along with his company, PDQ Arm & Prop, which supplied prop weapons for the film.

“This tragedy happened because live bullets were delivered to the set and loaded into the gun, Gutierrez-Reed failed to check the bullets or the gun carefully, Halls failed to check the gun carefully and yet announced the gun was safe before handing it to Baldwin, and Zachry failed to disclose that Gutierrez-Reed had been acting recklessly off set and was a safety risk to those around her,” said the cross complaint from Baldwin’s attorney Luke Nikas.

“More than anyone else on that set, Baldwin has been wrongfully viewed as the perpetrator of this tragedy. By these cross-claims, Baldwin seeks to clear his name,” the actor’s lawsuit said.

The Emmy-award winning actor has maintained his innocence and said he was told the gun was safe and he did not pull the trigger. However, an FBI forensic report found the weapon could not have fired unless the trigger was pulled, as reported by Deadline.

Still, Baldwin lawyers said he’s lost a number of job opportunities and “associated income.”

“He’s been fired from multiple jobs expressly because of the incident on Rust and has been passed over for other opportunities, which is a direct result of the negligence of Cross-Defendants Gutierrez-Reed, Halls, Kenney, PDQ, and Zachry,” Deadline reported.

Baldwin was expected to star in a spy action movie, Chief of Station, but has been replaced by Aaron Eckhart taking over his lead role.

The charges against Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed will be formally filed before the end of the month.