WATCH: District attorney blasts ‘lack of care’ on Rust set as Baldwin vows to fight charges
Julia Johnson
Video Embed
New Mexico First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies appeared on CNN Thursday shortly after announcing her intent to file criminal charges against actor Alec Baldwin for the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust in 2021.
The DA slammed the environment of the movie’s set as rife with “complacency, lack of care.” She added that “it’s more than negligence and I would say it rises to recklessness.”
ALEC BALDWIN CHARGED WITH INVOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER IN HALYNA HUTCHINS SHOOTING
After investigating thoroughly, she explained that “we realized that we believe that there was probable cause to charge Alec Baldwin and Hannah Gutierrez-Reed with involuntary manslaughter.”
“There was such a lack of safety and safety standards on that set,” she claimed.
iFrame Object
“There were live rounds on set. They were mixed in with regular dummy rounds,” Carmack-Altwies said. “Nobody was checking those, or at least they weren’t checking them consistently.”
She further detailed that “They somehow got loaded into a gun handed off to Alec Baldwin,” who she said “didn’t check it, didn’t do any of the things that he was supposed to do to make sure that he was safe, or that anyone around him was safe, and he pointed the gun at Halyna Hutchins and he pulled the trigger.”
“This was a really fast and loose set,” she reiterated. “Nobody was doing their job. There were three people that, if they had done their job that day, this tragedy wouldn’t have happened and that is David Halls, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, and Alec Baldwin. If they had just done their basic duties, we wouldn’t be standing here.”
According to Carmack-Altwies, “we think that there is more than enough there to move forward on these charges and possibly to get through the preliminary hearing stage and onto trial.” She didn’t expound upon why she only saw trial as a “possibility.”
At the end of the day, she said “this is really about justice for Halyna Hutchins.” She noted that “an actor doesn’t get a free pass just because they’re an actor,” regarding the charges to be levied against Baldwin.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The DA revealed that the charges will be formally filed before the end of the month. The charged parties will not be arrested, instead being issued court summons. They will then appear in court for an arraignment.
“This decision distorts Halyna Hutchins’ tragic death and represents a terrible miscarriage of justice,” Baldwin’s attorney, Luke Nikas of Quinn Emanuel said in a statement on Thursday to the Washington Examiner. “Mr. Baldwin had no reason to believe there was a live bullet in the gun — or anywhere on the movie set. He relied on the professionals with whom he worked, who assured him the gun did not have live rounds. We will fight these charges, and we will win.”