Will Alec Baldwin be prosecuted for fatal film-set shooting?

A lawsuit served against Alec Baldwin has alleged that the film script did not require him to fire a gun when he fatally shot cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

Mamie Mitchell, the script supervisor who called the emergency services after the actor fatally discharged the weapon, “is suing the star and the film’s producers, alleging they did not follow safety protocols”, Sky News said.

At a press conference yesterday, Mitchell’s lawyer claimed that an “industry veteran” like Baldwin should not have trusted that the gun was safe unless it was handed to him by either the prop master or armourer.

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Russian roulette

“Mr Baldwin chose to play Russian roulette when he fired a gun without checking it and without having the armourer do so in his presence,” she said. “His behaviour and that of the producers on Rust was reckless.”

The lawsuit claims that the scene called for three camera shots, one of the actor’s eyes, another of a bloodstain on his shoulder and a third “as he reached his hand down to the holster and removed the gun”.

“There was nothing in the script about the gun being discharged by defendant Baldwin or by any other person,” it alleges.

Neither he nor the film’s producers have commented on the lawsuit, but Baldwin has previously shared an Instagram post in which the film’s costume designer rejected claims that crew members were “overworked and surrounded by unsafe, chaotic conditions”.

Criminal action

Experts have also said that Baldwin could face involuntary manslaughter charges, “because of his role as the executive producer of the film, rather than for pulling the trigger”, The Telegraph reported.

Entertainment lawyer Joseph Costa told the New York Post that “as an executive producer, you are in a position of control and you can get prosecuted criminally”.

“It’s the equivalent of drinking and driving, meaning someone may not have intended to cause great harm but they do,” Costa said.

Criminal attorney Erlinda Johnson added that “all the state needs to demonstrate is that he was engaged in a lawful, but dangerous act and did not act with due caution”.

“That’s what the state has to prove for involuntary manslaughter, which is a fourth-degree felony with a maximum penalty of up to 18 months in prison,” she explained.

Baldwin might rely on the defence that someone handed him the loaded weapon, Johnson suggested, “but then, well, it was incumbent upon him, since he was handling the gun, to make sure there were no rounds”.

“Clearly, someone didn’t do their due diligence,” she said. “They should have been checking those guns to make sure there were no live rounds.”

‘Live target practice’

Court documents reveal that “cameraman Reid Russell told a detective the camera was not rolling when the gun went off”, Sky News reported.

Russell “added that Baldwin was very careful when handling firearms on set, and recalled an instance when the actor made sure a child actor was not near him when a gun was being discharged”.

The court files also state that last week’s fatal shooting occurred after the film’s assistant director, Dave Halls, “handed the weapon to Baldwin” and announced “cold gun”, a term “indicating it was safe to use”, the broadcaster said.

Director Souza confirmed that he recalled “cold gun” being shouted before the fatal shooting.

Following the accident, claims have emerged that Halls was the subject of a safety complaint in 2019. Maggie Goll, a prop maker and licensed pyrotechnician, “filed an internal complaint with the executive producers of Hulu’s Into the Dark TV series in 2019 over concerns about assistant director Halls’ conduct on set”, The Guardian reported.

Goll alleged that Halls had “not followed safety protocols for weapons and pyrotechnics when she worked alongside him”, the paper added. In an email to the paper, she said: “There is absolutely no reason that gun safety should be ignored on set, even when it is a non-firing prop firearm.”

“This situation is not about Dave Halls... It’s in no way one person’s fault,” she added. “It’s a bigger conversation about safety on set and what we are trying to achieve with that culture.”

Goll’s comments about safety have been underlined by reports that the gun “was being used by crews members off set” for what celebrity news site TMZ was told “amounted to target practice”.

“Multiple sources” reportedly claimed that “this off-the-clock shooting – which was allegedly happening away from the movie lot – was being done with real bullets”, which is “how some who worked on the film believe a live round found its way in one of the chambers”.

Crew members had also “walked off” the film’s set prior to the accident, Vanity Fair reported. Half a dozen camera crew are reported to have left in “protest at their working conditions”, including complaints that “crew members were obligated to drive 50 miles from Albuquerque daily” to the set, near the New Mexico capital of Sante Fe.

An unnamed crew member told The New York Times that Hutchins “had been advocating for safer conditions for her team” prior to her death. Three insiders also told the paper that the gun that killed her had misfired three times prior to the fatal accident.

The Times reported that “those questioned about the gun and how it came to be loaded with live ammunition instead of blanks include” the film’s armourer, Hannah Gutierrez Reed. Aged 24, Gutierrez Reed was “in charge of weapons on the set”, the paper said.

Appearing on the Voices Of The West podcast in September, she said that she almost turned down a job as lead armourer on a previous film, The Old Way, stating: “I almost didn’t take the job because I wasn’t sure if I was ready but it went really smoothly.”