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submitted 10 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

Grand jury in New Mexico charged the actor for a shooting on Rust set that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins

Actor Alec Baldwin is facing a new involuntary manslaughter charge over the 2021 fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of the movie Rust.

A Santa Fe, New Mexico, grand jury indicted Baldwin on Friday, months after prosecutors had dismissed the same criminal charge against him.

During an October 2021 rehearsal on the set of Rust, a western drama, Baldwin was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins when it went off, fatally striking her and wounding Joel Souza, the film’s director.

Baldwin, a co-producer and star of the film, has said he did not pull the trigger, but pulled back the hammer of the gun before it fired.

Last April, special prosecutors dismissed the involuntary manslaughter charge against Baldwin, saying the firearm might have been modified prior to the shooting and malfunctioned and that forensic analysis was warranted. But in August, prosecutors said they were considering re-filing the charges after a new analysis of the weapon was completed.

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[-] PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee 180 points 10 months ago

I'm like 90% sure now that the absolutely glacial pace this is moving at confirms that the only reason verdicts come down so quickly in most other cases is because most accused can't afford the court and lawyer's fees to keep fighting for as long as they realistically could.

[-] bamboo 73 points 10 months ago

Except if your name is Trump. Somehow he's able to drag out all his court cases and not pay his lawyers.

[-] PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee 36 points 10 months ago

That I chalk more up to how pants shittingly terrified judges are of setting a new precedent, let alone one as impactful as jailing a former president. None of them want to be the guy who goes down in history as having locked up a major political figure without the most air tight case imaginable.

[-] MagicShel@programming.dev 33 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

This is the most airtight case imaginable. We sat here and watched him crime right on tv.

[-] Liz@midwest.social 27 points 10 months ago

He also has just straight-up admitted to other big crimes on camera as well.

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[-] n3m37h@sh.itjust.works 16 points 10 months ago

Thats because he has people pretending to be lawyers instead of real lawyers

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[-] Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg 104 points 10 months ago

This from the start has seemed to me like a prosecutor trying to make a name for themselves by taking down a famous person.

If you're doing a scene where you throw acid on somebody is the person throwing the acid supposed to check to make sure it's not actually acid before they throw it?

Should they check to make sure the knife they're about to stab someone with is actually a prop?

If you get to the person who's been told to "do this action convincingly" and you want them to double check all the safety work you're doing it wrong. Their job isn't making sure they've been given safe tools, it's using safe tools to make someone that's fake but convincing.

Everyone in the armoring company should be charged with murder ... but Alec Baldwin did not put live rounds into a gun. He went into work, did his job, and because other people screwed up someone got shot. Maybe the industry itself needs to change but that shouldn't be Alec Baldwin's problem. That's not justice.

[-] CaptainProton@lemmy.world 91 points 10 months ago

But you're right, and the management who kept ignoring problems is going to be tried here. It just so happens that the producer was also an actor and happened to be the one given a bad prop. Alec was the manager of everyone: he hired people, and decided they were doing a good enough job. After employees complained about safety problems, he ignored them. After people QUIT over those safety problems, he continued ignoring them. Alec the producer is the one on trial, not Alec the actor.

[-] BleatingZombie@lemmy.world 22 points 10 months ago

Thank you! I feel like I've never been able to get the full story!

[-] JoBo@feddit.uk 22 points 10 months ago

but Alec Baldwin did not put live rounds into a gun.

He was pointing the gun at someone. That should never happen.

that shouldn’t be Alec Baldwin’s problem

He was a producer on a set which was being mismanaged to the extent that a large proportion of the crew had just walked off the job over safety concerns.

It is very much his problem.

[-] Maggoty@lemmy.world 21 points 10 months ago

Baldwin was in charge. He wasn't just an Actor. He took several actions that made the set less safe that day.

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[-] deegeese@sopuli.xyz 61 points 10 months ago

He hired the cheapest firearms manager, tolerated crew playing with real bullets, and so when he’s handed a loaded gun, it’s a direct result of his own mistakes.

[-] lennybird@lemmy.world 137 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Lowest bidder aside, how is this clearly not the armorer's fault front and center? It was her responsibility to handle the set props. What Baldwin paid them is irrelevant to what she claimed she could provide and was obligated to provide under contract.

She is literally the one to (a) claim the firearm was safe, but (b) load it with live ammunition.

???

[-] CptEnder@lemmy.world 102 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Work in the industry, doc side but this is pretty basic producer stuff. This is 100% on the armorer and the only reason they keep trying to charge Baldwin is the legal grey area of the state they filmed in. Had this happened in a state with more production (Georgia, Louisiana, California) there would be a more direct way for prosecutors to go after the correct person. Georgia and California specifically has legal precedent from deaths on set like this.

One of the reasons credits are so long is because we hire people to maintain a safe set - think of it like a foreman for safe worksite in construction (which we also hire often). We hire a ton of people for safety from actual police to medics and rescue personnel.

Hiring an armorer is SPECIFICALLY to avoid situations like this. Because the production company is like "hey you know what? I don't think me, some producer knows how to use a gun safely, I should hire someone who's certified to do that." It's not some token job, they're supposed to be trained on how to properly load the powder of the blank rounds, how to mark and flag hot guns and dead props, and pretty fucking much rule #1A is never bring live ammo anywhere near your set.

Baldwin should not be held criminally liable and any half decent entertainment lawyer will settle that. Now civil liability, that's certainly more realistic. But even then it should be the production LLC not any 1 person.

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[-] negativeyoda@lemmy.world 20 points 10 months ago

An article I read right after this happened (which very well could have been a hit piece) said she (the armorer) was in her early 20s and would fuck around and go shooting with the prop guns when filming wasn't happening. So... kind of. Yes

Sounds like there's lots of blame to go around

[-] Kalkaline@lemmy.zip 13 points 10 months ago

She's guilty, he probably has some liability being the producer.

[-] DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe 30 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

He was far from the only producer. Quite frankly I doubt very much he did any real work besides acting.

The liability belongs to the company as a whole, absent some slam dunk of a memo where Baldwin personally said "Hire this lady, she's my cousin's kid, also I personally know she falsified her credentials but fuck it."

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[-] chaogomu@kbin.social 63 points 10 months ago

The thing is, he's not the one who hired her.

He was one of 10 listed producers on that film, and was not the hiring director.

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[-] fidodo@lemmy.world 20 points 10 months ago

Do you know his involvement in her being hired? Being a producer can mean anything from total involvement to it just being a name on paper.

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[-] magnetosphere@kbin.social 39 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I’m tired of hearing about this. Start the fucking trial already.

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[-] FluffyPotato@lemm.ee 28 points 10 months ago

Is there a reason they had a gun loaded with actual bullets or even actual bullets on the set? Isn't like everything in movies done with blanks?

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[-] Dangdoggo@kbin.social 21 points 10 months ago

I've said it once and I'll say it again, if you're holding a weapon it is your responsibility to know if that weapon is live, I don't care who hands it to you or under what context. Children learn this in rifle safety.

Does the armorer share responsibility? Definitely. But you can't just say "someone else got hired to do that so Baldwin is off the hook." Even pointing a gun around, live ammo or not, with the hammer cocked is plainly asinine and unsafe behavior. All Baldwin needed to do was take 5 seconds to open the chamber and look at the bullets to prevent someone losing their life, if that's not negligence then what exactly is?

[-] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 45 points 10 months ago

I've said it once and I'll say it again, the rules of firearm safety apply in common situations, not on professional movie sets. I'm reminded of a video of a parked car causing a massive pile up in a bicycle race, because even though it wasn't moving, the people in the middle of the pack can't see past the cyclists in front of them, and can't dodge the car in time. That post got comment after comment about how stupid the cyclists were, how you should always be prepared to stop at a moment's notice, how you should never cycle anywhere without at least six miles of visibility, but the thing is, in bicycle races, common sense doesn't apply. The roads are supposed to be clear because cyclists aren't going to be able to see far enough ahead of them to properly react to obstacles, because that's what bicycle races are like.

Similarly, when you're at your friend's house and he's showing off his new carbine, you absolutely treat it like they're a moron who left it chambered, and even after you make sure it's clear, you don't put your finger on the trigger and you don't point it at anyone. This isn't because it might still shoot, it's because you need to practice that muscle memory in case your idiot friend doesn't clear it next time. But when you're on a movie set, the norm switches. You're working with professionals, and when they tell you it's cold, it's supposed to be safe to assume that it is in fact cold. A million other actors have made that assumption a million times each, and it's been a safe assumption virtually every time. The people at fault when the gun isn't cold aren't the actors who trusted the professionals, it's the professionals who brought live ammo to a movie set.

[-] drdabbles@lemmy.world 29 points 10 months ago

I'd flip the share of liability, personally. The primary liable party is the armorer since it's their actual job to handle these things. But Baldwin shares in liability IMO because of the negligence of not verifying the state of the firearm. Especially after he knew others had used it for firing real rounds.

The whole thing is just sloppy as hell and highlights to me why regulations need to be in place, or movies need to let go of the gun firing bullshit. Every god damned thing is done in CG now, they can't afford muzzle flash suddenly?

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this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2024
349 points (100.0% liked)

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