Actor is due to go to trial over death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who was killed on set of Rust
Fewer than three weeks before actor Alec Baldwin is due to go on trial in Santa Fe, New Mexico, prosecutors have said that he “engaged in horseplay with the revolver”, including firing a blank round at a crew member on the set of Rust before the tragic accident occurred.
Baldwin is facing involuntary manslaughter charges in the 2021 shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
In new court documents, prosecutors said they plan to bring new evidence to support their case that the 66-year-old actor and producer was reckless with firearms while filming on the set and displayed “erratic and aggressive behavior during the filming” that created potential safety concerns.
Prosecutors in the case, which is due to go to trial on 10 July, have previously alleged that to watch Baldwin’s conduct on the set of Rust “is to witness a man who has absolutely no control of his own emotions and absolutely no concern for how his conduct affects those around him”.
In the latest filing, special prosecutors Kari Morrissey and Erlinda Johnson allege that Baldwin pointed his gun and fired “a blank round at a crew member while using that crew member as a line of site as his perceived target”.
Guns are deadly. I cannot count the times that I found an "unloaded" gun, both mine and others, that was found to contain a cartridge over the years. People get excited, they forget it was loaded, they get distracted, cartridges can get stuck when unloading. I can tell you stories that will make you cringe.
I possess target and hunting firearms and have never carried or possessed for self defence from anything. I also have never experienced the safety violations the other commenter has.
Just saying, your assumptions about the reasoning for gun possession are not comprehensive.
You shouldn’t own guns. Clearing the weapon before storage is basic safety. If you are “forgetting” that you left a round in, you don’t have the mental capacity to own a firearm.
Randomly finding out a stored gun is loaded has never happened to me or anyone I know.
Clearly you've never done guns with sleep deprivation or anything other than a range day. There's a reason you're supposed to check every time you pick a gun up.
I’m just going out on the limb here, but I’m feeling you are prior service for the military and probably with a little combat experience. Correct me if wrong though.
Yup. Can't speak for the other guy but the entire reason the rule about always checking exists is because a lot of professions with guns will run you ragged and that's when mistakes happen.
People in here responding like you guys just party with guns and alcohol and don't care but obviously you're doing your safety check whenever you pick one up. Don't worry about these guys.
Probably smarter than you on this one. Over a large enough sample and time period mistakes happen. That's why you check every time. And from their post they obviously understand that.
Can you not even partially acknowledge that what he is praising is that this guy is successfully realizing that guns are loaded before handling them. This is exactly the behaviour that would have prevented the shooting in the case being discussed.