Readers are no doubt aware of the shooting on the movie set of "Rust". It was not film shooting that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchinson and wounded assistant director Joel Souza, but a live round from a .45 single-action revolver. The shot was fired by actor Alec Baldwin who was pointing the gun in the direction of his colleagues when it went off. Baldwin has claimed he pulled back the revolver's hammer, but never pulled the trigger while rehearsing with it. That claim was undermined by an FBI forensic examination of the weapon, which concluded the gun could not have fired without the trigger being pulled. Industry standards suggest a replica should have been used while working on camera angles. [photo credit: Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office]
Baldwin and the film's armourer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, were charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter, today. One count is the common law felony of involuntary manslaughter, which requires a showing of negligence beyond a reasonable doubt. Baldwin has maintained that he relied on the expertise of others to determine if the prop was safe to handle. Nevertheless, he was involved in an ultra-hazardous activity at the time of the killing that a jury could decide required him to exercise a greater degree of care, such as checking each cylinder to determine if the rounds were blanks or dummies. Baldwin has handled weapons and ammunition before in his movie career. (See e.g., Hunt for Red October). Prosecutors say he skipped a mandatory on-set safety meeting. Baldwin was also the co-producer of the Western, and there were several gun safety failures on the set according to prosecutors. State workplace safety regulators fined the production for several such failures not fully addressed by the movie's production managers. The year-long investigation found some 500 rounds on location that included dummies, blanks, and live rounds. One of those live rounds found its way into the pistol handled by Baldwin--how it got there is not material to proving the crime since Baldwin did not load the revolver himself.
The other theory presented by the district attorney is the statutory crime of "reckless disregard for safety without due caution or circumspection". Because the legal term used is "reckless", the crime requires a slightly higher standard of wrongdoing. It also cares a mandatory five year sentence enhancement provision, when the crime involves a firearm. If convicted of common law manslaughter, he faces up to 18 months imprisonment and a $5,000 fine.
Baldwin has settled with Hutchinson's family for her wrongful death. Her former husband is now a co-producer of the film. Whether it will be completed should be open to question now. Whichever theory the jury decides to follow in the criminal case, the preventable death of Hutchinson emphasizes the need for rigorous safety protocols when using firearms on a movie set. With the widespread availability of computerized graphics, use of ammunition of any kind to make movies seems obsolete as well as potentially deadly.