New Mexico prosecutors involuntary manslaughter charges against Alec Baldwin in the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the movie “Rust.” “This decision does not absolve Mr. Baldwin of criminal culpability and charges may be refiled,” said special prosecutors Jason Lewis and Kari Morrissey, reports the Wall Street Journal. The shooting occurred in October 2021 on the set of the low-budget Western outside Santa Fe. A gun Baldwin was holding fired a live round, killing Hutchins, 42. Film’s director Joel Souza was wounded. New evidence shows the revolver could have fired without. Baldwin pulling the trigger.
Lewis and Morrissey said they couldn’t proceed because newly revealed facts require time for further investigation and forensic testing. Baldwin has said he didn’t pull the trigger and he didn’t know there was a live round in the gun. “I would never point a gun at anyone and pull the trigger at them, never,” he told ABC News in 2021. “Someone put a live bullet in a gun, a bullet that wasn’t even supposed to be on the property.” The gun was modified before it reached the set in a way that could have allowed it to fire a bullet without the trigger being pulled. Santa Fe-area District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies charged Baldwin in January, 15 months after the shooting. A preliminary hearing was scheduled to begin May 3, at which a judge would have determined whether the prosecution could move forward.
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