Alec Baldwin pleads not guilty to manslaughter following fatal shooting

Alec Baldwin has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter after a 2021 fatal shooting during a rehearsal on a movie set in New Mexico.

The US actor also filed a waiver of arraignment opting to plead not guilty a day before a scheduled court appearance in the First Judicial District Court of Santa Fe, New Mexico, which will now not take place.

In court documents, he said: “I plea not guilty to all of the charges in the complaint or citation.”

Baldwin, the lead actor and a co-producer on the Western movie Rust, was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during a rehearsal on a movie set outside Santa Fe in October 2021 when the gun went off, killing her and wounding director Joel Souza.

Baldwin has said he pulled back the hammer, but not the trigger, and the gun fired.

He was initially charged in January last year, but those charges were formally dismissed three months later.

Earlier in January 2024, special prosecutors brought the case before a grand jury in Santa Fe, after receiving a new analysis of the gun, and Baldwin was re-charged.

Hannah Gutierrez Reed, the film’s armourer, has previously pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter and evidence tampering, and is set to go on trial on February 21.