Rust Shooting: Family Of Halyna Hutchins Sues Alec Baldwin & Producers

[D J C]

 

The family of Halyna Hutchins is suing Alec Baldwin and seven additional producers of the disastrous independent western, Rust. Despite claiming that he did not pull the trigger that resulted in the fatal on-set shooting of 42-year-old cinematographer Hutchins, Baldwin has consistently been associated with the tragedy. In recent months, he’s made attempts at distancing himself from the incident but has been served with lawsuits.

 

It’s been nearly four months since Hutchins was killed, in an accidental shooting that stunned Hollywood and made the world question how on earth a real gun, armed with live ammunition, could end up on a film set. The original story was that Baldwin had been handed a pistol while rehearsing for a scene in Rust, the independent western that he was producing and starring in. Baldwin had reportedly pointed the gun toward the camera and pulled the trigger, at which point the weapon went off, striking Hutchins and director Joel Souza. Hutchins was airlifted to hospital in Albuquerque, but later pronounced dead. Souza escaped with an injury to his shoulder, which was treated. Within weeks, however, Baldwin denied everything from having pointed the gun at Hutchins to not having pulled the trigger to accusations that he wasn’t complying with the police investigation.

 

Throughout the duration of the investigation into Hutchins’ death, her family has quietly observed the proceedings and generally avoided laying blame on Baldwin. But that’s set to change. As The Guardian reports, Hutchins’ family has now filed a lawsuit against Baldwin and seven other Rust producers. The suit alleges that reckless behavior and cost-cutting measures ultimately resulted in the death of Hutchins, but Baldwin and the other defendants in the suit say the case should be thrown out, as it is qualifies as a workplace accident and therefore needs to go through New Mexico’s worker compensation system.

 

This most recent lawsuit is the second targeted at Baldwin, after the film’s gaffer, Serge Svetnoy, filed a suit over negligence last November. Though Svetnoy was in no way physically injured after the accident, he contends that he suffered emotional distress after the bullet nearly struck him and he held Hutchins in his arms as she lay dying. Baldwin has recently returned to work on a new project for the first time since the shooting, with production on Rust unlikely to ever resume. Yet, throughout everything that’s occurred over the course of the past four months, Baldwin has repeatedly maintained how grief stricken he is over the accident, while subtly attempting to distance himself from blame.

 

After the initial horror of the shooting on the set of Rust subsided slightly, it quickly became apparent that something wasn’t right with the entire production. It certainly appears as though some degree of negligence was responsible for live ammunition in a real gun, and as a producer on the film, Baldwin does share some of that blame. It seemed as though it was only a matter of time before Hutchins’ family took a legal approach against Baldwin, as there doesn’t appear to be one sole person to blame for the tragedy.

 

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Edited February 18, 2022 by D J C