Baldwin expects no charges over fatal movie set accident

LOS ANGELES

U.S. actor Alec Baldwin said he does not believe anyone will be criminally charged over the fatal shooting on the set of Western film “Rust,” telling CNN he has hired a private investigator to assess culpability for the tragedy.

Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins died after being hit by a live round that came from a gun Baldwin was holding as he rehearsed on the New Mexico set of the low-budget movie last October.

A criminal investigation into the shooting is still ongoing, and prosecutors have not yet ruled out charges against those involved.

“I sincerely believe... [investigators are] going to say that this was an accident. It’s tragic,” said Baldwin in a rare interview about the episode.

Baldwin told CNN he had replayed the events leading up to the shooting over and over for the past 10 months.

While insisting he does not want to “condemn” Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the film set’s armorer and props assistant, Baldwin pointed the finger of blame at her and assistant director Dave Halls, who handed him the gun moments before the shooting.

“Someone put a live bullet in the gun who should have known better,” Baldwin said.

“That was [Gutierrez-Reed’s] job. Her job was to look at the ammunition and put in the dummy round or the blank round, and there wasn’t supposed to be any live rounds on the set.

“There are two people who didn’t do what they were supposed to do,” he added.

“I’m not sitting there saying I want them to, you know, go to prison, or I want their lives to be hell. I don’t want that, but I want everybody to know that those are the two people that are responsible for what happened.”    

Baldwin, who was both the star and a producer of “Rust,” has been the subject of a number of civil lawsuits over the shooting, including from Hutchins’s family.