Alec Baldwin suing ‘Rust’ crew over negligence
Alec Baldwin has made the decision to open a lawsuit charge for negligence against the crew members of Rust in order to clear his name of any wrongdoing after he fatally shot a member of the crew on set. It was more than a year ago (October 21st) that Baldwin killed Halyna Hutchins with a live round from a prop gun, believing that the weapon was not loaded with live ammunition.
As well as hitting Rust’s cinematographer, Baldwin also inadvertently injured the film’s director, Joel Souza. Baldwin claimed that the prob gun only contained blank rounds by Souza’s assistant, Dave Halls. The production of Rust was subsequently postponed indefinitely.
Hutchins’ family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Baldwin earlier this year, which was settled last month. Now, Baldwin himself has filed a lawsuit of his own against several of Rust’s crew members. Among them are David Halls, property master Sarah Zachry, weapons supplier Seth Kenney and armourer Hannah Gutierrez Reed – none of whom has taken responsibility for Hutchins’ death.
The lawsuit via Luke Nikas (Baldwin’s lawyer) reads: “This tragedy happened because live bullets were delivered to the set and loaded into the gun, Gutierrez-Reed failed to check the bullets or the gun carefully, Halls failed to check the gun carefully and yet announced the gun was safe before handing it to Baldwin, and Zachry failed to disclose that Gutierrez-Reed had been acting recklessly off set and was a safety risk to those around her.”
“Baldwin has also lost numerous job opportunities and associated income,” he continued. “For example, he’s been fired from multiple jobs expressly because of the incident on Rust and has been passed over for other opportunities, which is a direct result of the negligence of Cross-Defendants Gutierrez-Reed, Halls, Kenney and Zachry. More than anyone else on that set, Baldwin has been wrongfully viewed as the perpetrator of this tragedy. By these Cross-Claims, Baldwin seeks to clear his name and hold Cross-Defendants accountable for their misconduct.”
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