New footage of Alec Baldwin firing prop guns and advising crew members on firearm safety on the set of “Rust” has been released by NBC News one day before a grand jury is set to consider new involuntary manslaughter charges against the actor in connection to the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
The five videos, which total about seven minutes in length and which you can watch above, show Baldwin rehearsing scenes while firing the guns loaded with blanks and, in two videos, asking some crew members to move for safety reasons. The videos were recorded days before a gun being held by Baldwin fired a live round, killing Hutchins and wounding “Rust” director Joel Souza.
According to NBC News, the videos are just a few of dozens of videos on the “Rust” set that special prosecutors for the Santa Fe District Attorney’s office received last month. On Oct. 17, prosecutors Kari Morrisey and Jason Lewis announced their intent to recharge Baldwin with involuntary manslaughter after dropping the charges this past April. Baldwin could face up to 18 months in prison if convicted.
Baldwin has maintained his innocence since first speaking out about the incident in an ABC News interview in December 2021, arguing that he was told that the gun was not loaded by assistant director Dave Halls and that he did not pull the trigger when it discharged. A forensics analysis of the gun conducted by federal investigators determined that the gun could not have fired without a trigger pull.
Halls pleaded no contest in March to a misdemeanor charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon and will serve six months of unsupervised probation. The production’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, is also facing charges of involuntary manslaughter to which she has pleaded not guilty. Gutierrez-Reed’s trial is set to begin on Feb. 21.
