The family of a cinematographer who was shot and killed on the set of ‘Rust’ is suing Alec Baldwin and the film’s producers for wrongful death, their attorneys said Tuesday.
Attorneys for Halyna Hutchins’ family announced the lawsuit filed in New Mexico on behalf of Hutchins’ husband, Matthew Hutchins, and their son, Andros, at a press conference in Los Angeles.
At least three other lawsuits have been filed over the shooting, but this is the first directly related to one of the two people shot dead.
The “reckless driving and cost-cutting measures” by Baldwin and the film’s producers “led to the death of Halyna Hutchins,” attorney Brian Panish said.
A video created by the lawyers showed an animated recreation of the shooting.
Baldwin was pointing a gun at Hutchins while preparing to shoot a western scene in New Mexico on Oct. 21 when it exploded, killing Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza.
Baldwin said he pointed the gun at Hutchins on his instructions and it happened without him pulling the trigger.
Lawyers said in the video that Baldwin refused to train for the type of pistol shooting he was doing when he shot Hutchins.
He said industry standards called for the use of a rubber gun or similar prop gun during the current setup, and there was no call for a real gun.
Last month, nearly three months after the shooting, Baldwin turned over his cell phone to authorities in his home state of New York. They gathered information from the phone and provided it to Santa Fe County investigators, who had obtained a warrant for it.
Investigators described “a certain complacency” in the way the weapons were handled on the “Rust” set. They said it is too early to determine whether charges will be brought.
Baldwin said he did not believe he would face criminal charges in the shooting.
The film’s script supervisor and its main cameraman, who were both standing a few feet away when Hutchins was shot, have each filed a lawsuit for the trauma they suffered.
And film gunsmith Hannah Gutierrez Reed, who was named as a defendant in those lawsuits and blamed by some for the shooting, filed her own lawsuit saying an ammunition supplier created unsafe conditions by including live ammunition. in a box that was supposed to include only mannequin. Sleeves.
In an interview with ABC News in December, Baldwin said he felt incredible sadness about the shooting, but no guilt.
“Someone is responsible for what happened, and I can’t say who it is, but it’s not me,” Baldwin said.
He said Hutchins asked him to point the gun right next to the camera and at his armpit before it went off.
“I didn’t pull the trigger,” Baldwin said. “I would never point a gun at someone and pull the trigger. Never.”
He called Hutchins “someone who was loved by everyone and admired by everyone who worked with her”.
Hutchins, 42, grew up on a remote Soviet military base and worked on documentary films in Eastern Europe before studying film in Los Angeles and embarking on a promising film career.
On her Instagram page, Hutchins identified herself as a “restless dreamer” and an “adrenaline junkie.”
In a 2019 interview with American Cinematographer, which named her one of the year’s rising stars, she described herself as an “army kid” drawn to movies because “there’s no there wasn’t much to do outside.” She would document herself skydiving and exploring caves, among other adventures, and through her work with British filmmakers she became “fascinated by storytelling based on real characters”.
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