• Thu. Apr 25th, 2024

Criminal Charges May be Filed, Over Alec Baldwin’s Shooting — Prosecutors

Criminal charges may still be filed over last week’s fatal shooting on a film set in New Mexico, US police say.

Actor Alec Baldwin accidentally shot dead cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounded a director on the set of the Western film Rust.

Investigators said a “lead projectile” had been removed from the director’s shoulder, and that it appeared to be a live round.

Alec Baldwin

They said there was “some complacency” around safety on the set.

“All options are on the table,” District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said of any potential charges. “No one has been ruled out at this point.”

Presenting the department’s initial findings, Sante Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said: “We suspect there were other live rounds found on set.”

“We’re going to determine how those got there, why they were there, because they shouldn’t have been there,” he added.

He said police had recovered 600 pieces of evidence so far – including three firearms and 500 rounds of ammunition.

Sheriff Mendoza also said the projectile removed from Joel Souza’s shoulder had been handed over as evidence.

“I think the facts are clear – a weapon was handed to Mr Baldwin. The weapon [was] functional and fired a live round killing Ms Hutchins and injuring Mr Souza,” he said about the killing.

The sheriff told reporters there had been up to 100 people on the set of the film when the shooting happened on Thursday.

He also confirmed that two other people had handled the gun, an antique Colt .45 revolver, before it was given to Mr Baldwin – the film’s armourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed and assistant director Dave Halls.