Actor Alec Baldwin may face federal manslaughter charges after shooting and killing a cinematographer and injuring a director on the set of his low budget independent film, “Rust.”
Chicago-based attorney Andrew Stoltmann believes Baldwin “needs to start thinking like a potential defendant instead of just somebody who made a tragic mistake.”
“I’m certainly not saying he’s going to be charged,” Stoltman told Fox News, “but what I am saying is anytime somebody shoots another human being – even on accident, even in self-defense – the police and eventually prosecutors look very, very carefully at what happened.”
According to an affidavit released Sunday night, Baldwin, 66, was practicing firing into a camera when camerawoman Halyna Hutchins was shot in the chest on Thursday.
The bullet went through Hutchins and struck director Joel Souza in the clavicle. Hutchins, 42, was pronounced dead at a hospital. Souza was treated and released from a hospital the same day.
A sheriff’s investigation is ongoing, but no charges are expected to be filed against Baldwin.
However, federal prosecutors are considering filing charges against the volatile actor who reportedly angered unionized crew members earlier in the day.
The crew members say they walked off the set because of poor working conditions and gun safety issues.
They crew was fired and replaced by non-union workers. One of those non-union workers, a 24-year-old woman with no experience, was given the assignment of preparing a prop gun for Baldwin.
It was revealed in the affidavit that some crew members used the same gun for target practice on the desert set earlier.
Investigators say Baldwin and his crew violated the 1st rule of gun safety: never point a gun at someone. Always assume the gun is loaded.
There’s a difference between a “prop gun” and a real firearm — and the crew members knew the gun was real.
At least one scripted television series, ABC’s cop show “The Rookie,” has banned the use of real guns on the set going forward.
Whether Baldwin is charged or not, his acting career is over.
Hollywood insiders say the low budget movie he was filming at the time of the incident will never see the light of day.
