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Alec Baldwin may be recharged with Rust gun death because of ‘additional facts’

New Mexico prosecutors plan to recharge Alec Baldwin with involuntary manslaughter over a fatal on-set shooting in October 2021.

The prosecutors dismissed charges against the Emmy award-winning actor in April, just two weeks before his trial was due to start.

But “additional facts” merit bringing the case again before a grand jury next month, they said.

Lawyers for Mr Baldwin criticised investigators as “misguided”.

“It is unfortunate that a terrible tragedy has been turned into this misguided prosecution,” they said in a statement.

“We will answer any charges in court.”

Mr Baldwin had been practising firing the gun on the set of Rust, a Western, at a ranch near Santa Fe when it went off, fatally striking 42-year-old cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.

Alec Baldwin rehearses with gun before fatal shooting

The actor said at the time that he drew back the hammer on the pistol, but did not pull the trigger.

Charges were dropped against Mr Baldwin six months ago after it was reported that the .45 Colt revolver had been modified with a new trigger in a way that could have made a misfire more likely.

Prosecutors then had the replica gun forensically tested and had some parts of the weapon replaced after it was broken during the FBI’s testing.

Experts in ballistics and forensics based in Arizona and New Mexico concluded there was no way for the gun to have been fired without the trigger being pulled.

The special prosecutors leading the case, Kari Morrissey and Jason Lewis, said in a statement sent to BBC News on Tuesday: “After extensive investigation over the past several months, additional facts have come to light.”

“We believe the appropriate course of action is to permit a panel of New Mexico citizens to determine from here whether Mr Baldwin should be held over for criminal trial,” they added.

In an interview with the New York Times on Tuesday, Ms Morrissey said that “the forensic testing of the gun concluded with certainty that the trigger of the gun had to have been pulled for the gun to go off”.

She added that prosecutors intend to begin presenting their case to a grand jury on 16 November.

The film’s armourer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, faces two counts of involuntary manslaughter.

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