Is Alec Baldwin Going to Jail for Manslaughter for Rust?

A pressing question about the Rust’s on-set shooting tragedy is whether Alec Baldwin will be going to jail? The Santa Fe DA has said, “No one is ruled out.”

The investigation is still active and ongoing. Even in Baldwin’s recent encounter with the paparazzi, he stated that he could not publicly speak about the matter until the final decision came out.

As of now, all the evidence will be sent to the FBI, Quantico, for investigation as well.

However, there is a possibility that Baldwin might be sued, not for firing the gun but for extended negligence since he is one of Rust’s producers. Similarly, other production crew may also be held legally responsible.

At the most, the personnel responsible for the weapon’s safety will be charged for involuntary manslaughter.

There is also an account stating that in between filming, live rounds were being fired at a range of cans. This would explain how live bullets ended up in a gun meant to contain only blanks.

Added to this, there are crew statements complaining about safety negligence leading up to the event.

Reports say that a major investigation is being conducted on on-set armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed and assistant director Dave Halls.

Besides the unsafe conditions on the sets of Rusts itself, both Reed and Halls are reported to have had similar episodes on other film sets as well.

Now there’s a lot of finger-pointing—the protocol states that the gun should be checked by more than one person, which wasn’t conducted in the case with this tragic gun.

Other than this huge safety breach, initial reports state that it was Halls who handed the gun to Baldwin, calling out, “Cold gun,” to indicate that there were no live rounds in the gun and it was safe to use. However, now there are discrepancies between Halls and Reed’s accounts, blaming each other for handing the gun to Baldwin.

There is, of course, a real culprit at hand, which is undeniably the complacency at handling such a serious situation. Had a responsible professional taken a look at the gun beforehand, such a tragedy could’ve been avoided.

In any case—will Baldwin be charged with manslaughter? It seems unlikely.

Source: LA Times