Prosecutors in New Mexico will announce Thursday whether they will file criminal charges in the fatal shooting of a cameraman on the set of “Rust,” after more than a year of investigations and delays.
The district attorney’s office serving Santa Fe County said Wednesday that the district attorney, Mary Carmack-Altwies, and the special prosecutor assigned to investigate the case, Andrea Reeb, will announce the decision in a written statement. . The agency spent more than two months weighing an indictment decision after the county sheriff’s office delivered its final investigative report.
While asking for additional funding from state officials last year, the agency said up to four people — including the actor Alec Baldwin, who was holding the gun when it went off — could be charged in the shooting. The district attorney’s office said in its request that any decision to press charges would result in high-profile and costly litigation.
While Ms. Carmack-Altwies made it clear in the funding request that her office had not yet decided whether to press charges — “If charges are warranted,” she began a sentence — it also went deeper than in the past. “One of the possible defendants is well-known film actor Alec Baldwin,” according to one of the attached documents.
The state approved more than $300,000 for hiring additional workers, with the possibility of more money later.
On October 21, 2021, Mr. Baldwin was positioning an old-fashioned revolver for a close-up on the set of the western when the gun went off, killing the cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, and injuring the film’s director, Joel Souza. Mr Baldwin has denied wrongdoing, claiming that he did not pull the trigger and that Mrs Hutchins instructed him where to aim the gun.
At the center of the investigation by the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office was Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the crew member responsible for the guns on set; Dave Halls, the film’s first assistant director, who said he inspected the gun that day before handing it over to Mr. Baldwin; Seth Kenney, the film’s main supplier of guns and ammunition; and Sarah Zachry, the film’s props master, who worked closely with Ms. Gutierrez-Reed. All four individuals have denied wrongdoing in interviews with investigators or through their lawyers.
After the shooting, investigators found five live rounds on set, in addition to the bullet fired from the gun. The final report from the sheriff’s office offered no theories about how that ammunition got on set.
