Rust Shooting: Alec Baldwin Charged with Manslaughter

Facts

• Santa Fe, NM District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies on Thursday announced that actor Alec Baldwin will be charged with "two counts of involuntary manslaughter" for his involvement in the fatal 2021 shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of "Rust."
• Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the on-set armorer who gave assistant director Dave Halls the loaded revolver before he gave it to Baldwin, has been charged with the same two counts. Her lawyer says she showed Halls an empty chamber and that he then told Baldwin the weapon was "cold."
• The indictments conclude a long investigation into Baldwin, Gutierrez, and assistant director Dave Halls, from which all three are accused of having been partially at fault in the shooting that killed Hutchins and wounded Director Joel Souza.
• The first charge carries a maximum sentence of 18 months in prison, though since the second count involves a firearm enhancement, a conviction there would carry a mandatory five-year sentence. Halls has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor.
• Baldwin has previously stated that he "would never point a gun at anyone and pull a trigger," with Gutierrez-Reed's lawyers suggesting the sheriff's office investigate Seth Kenny, the man who supplied the production with prop weapons and ammo.
• This comes after Hutchins' husband Matthew Hutchins filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Baldwin and others, from which they reached an undisclosed settlement. The Hutchins family on Thursday praised the announcement of the charges.

Sources: BBC News, FOX News, New York Post, Washington Post, and Insider.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by USA Today. Accidentally killing someone is obviously different from first-degree intentional murder, but that doesn't mean Baldwin and Gutierrez Reed's actions weren't criminal. The pair were horrendously negligent and careless in how they handled the gun, which are easily avoidable mistakes. Halyna Hutchins' tragic death was entirely avoidable.
• Narrative B, as provided by LA Times. First of all, both Gutierrez-Reed and Baldwin were told by weapons professionals that the gun was not loaded. Secondly, it was Hutchins herself who told Baldwin to point the gun toward her as she was setting the camera up for a scene. This was an incredibly rare tragedy unforeseen by anyone on the film crew, but wrongfully indicting people won't bring Hutchins back and won't provide justice for anyone.