Community Chat

[Kachina624]

Remember the murder of the cinematographer on the set of Alec Baldwin's movie Rust about a year ago in Santa Fe?  The local District Attorney is preparing to file charges in the case.  The news media is speculating that one will be Alec Baldwin.  This is from a local TV station.

[gertrudecloset]

I think I read something about it not long ago.  Alec is not scott free yet.

Rust' Shooting Investigation Receives Update on Possible Charges Against Alec Baldwin

By Stephen Andrew - August 11, 2022 05:45 pm EDT

There has been an update on the shooting investigation from the set of Rust, and it includes details on possible charges against actor Alec Baldwin. It's been almost 10 months since the fatal shooting, and Deadline reports that the police investigation is getting close to being complete. However, it is not closed just yet, but is still ongoing. 

In a new update, Santa Fe Country Sheriff's Investigators have confirmed that they have received a completed forensic report from the FBI. That report was in turn sent to the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator for further review. A release statement from the Sheriff's Office read, "The OMI had advised the Sheriff's Office that they required these forensic reports to finalize their investigation." In a separate update, the Santa Fe County Sheriffs, the Suffolk County Police Department, and First Judicial District Attorney's Office are all working together in order to acquire, process and disclose Baldwin's phone records. Once Sheriff's officials are able to review Baldwin's phone records and the OMI files, they will "send the final Rust case file to the Santa Fe District Attorney's office for final charging decisions."

"The District Attorney's office has been working with Suffolk County PD and Baldwin's lawyer to acquire the phone records. Once Suffolk County PD completes its agency assist and sends those records to New Mexico law enforcement, our detectives will need to then thoroughly review those phone records for evidentiary purposes," Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said in a statement. Notably, Deadline reported that the Santa Fe District Attorney's did not "respond for a request for comment on the state of the probe."

Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed on the set of Rust on Oct. 21, 2021, after a prop gun that Baldwin was holding discharged. The gun was initially not believed to be loaded with live rounds. During an interview with ABC News host George Stephanopoulos, Baldwin claimed that he "didn't pull the trigger" on the gun, stating that he has no idea why or how it fired a live round. This claim has been backed up by the film's Assistant Director, David Halls. In a previous statement to Good Morning America, Halls's attorney Lisa Torraco said, "Dave has told me since the very first day I met him that Alec did not pull that trigger. His finger was never in the trigger guard."

https://popculture.com/celebrity/news/rust-shooting-investigation-receives-update-possible-charges-a...

[skatting44]

Truly, there was major negligence that caused that lady's death.

 Alex Baldwin  is like a cat with 9 lives , however  he shoots his mouth off so much ....

 He has somekind of personality disorder . He always balmes some one else .

  He may have used up all his cat lives by now on this one. 

Any one who holds a gun and pulls a trigger holds all the responsibility .

[Porcelain]

Are you saying they are charging someone with murder?

[qvcfreak]

@Porcelain   I would think Involuntary manslaughter or negligence homicide. I don’t think murder since it wasn’t premeditated.  Unless there’s something else.

[BlueFinch]

This tragedy has haunted me. That movie set looked like it was being run by a bunch of party frat boys. And, charges should start at the top for lack of staff safety. Looks like safety meetings were minimal. Alec had some responsibility in several of these roles. 

It seems the person responsible for managing weapon safety should be totally accountable, but maybe not.  She was a poor, inexperienced hire. Alec shouldn't have pulled the trigger, with that gun pointed close range at the victim either. It wasn't necessary to test camera angles. Yeah, he did --- what are the odds it would go off by itself, which he claims. 

It was a horrible situation. It will be interesting to see how things fall out in proceedings. I'm sure no one wanted to take the life of this beautiful woman, but what happened was pure negligence. 

[Katcat1]

Alec better cool his temper before he gets himself locked up.  He has 6 or 7 children to care for.   May the woman that was murdered rest in peace (I apologize for not remembering her name) but she was taken too soon.

[Porcelain]

Guns are created to kill. We have gun safety laws and regulations for a reason.

Because chuckleheads and weirdos don't have common sense. Someone responsible needs to step in and create safety when an irresponsible person starts goofing around with a firearm. If you don't properyly respect a weapon you have zero business holding it.

I've shot guns at a range and out on a big estate. As a newbie, everyone kept an eye on me. I got yelled at once when I accidentally started to gesture in an unsafe manner. And rightly so.

If you have an atmosphere with low respect for potentially deadly objects (guns, swords, even forklifts or horses or conveyor belts), bad things can easily happen. High respect environment, people are likely to behave safely and all go home at the end of the day.

So in my opinion Alec is responsible here. But I also think casual treatment of guns happens a lot in our country and that problem needs the same level of attention as this particular incident.

[Kachina624]

Alec has always claimed he didn't pull the trigger of the gun he had in his hand.  The FBI examined the weapon and said the only way it would have fired would have been by him pulling the trigger.  I'm guessing he'll have some culpability.

[BlueFinch]

@Kachina624 Of course he did. That type of weapon doesn't have a hair trigger. Besides, he never said that right after the shot was fired. If he hadn't meant to pull the trigger wouldn't he have been protesting he didn't pull the trigger immediately?

Alec will be a handful if he has charges. He's been all about protecting Alec. He will be trying to turn himself into the victim before it's all over. But, that's Alec.