Alec Baldwin is being sued by Halyna Hutchins’ family.
The 63-year-old actor’s prop gun accidentally went off on the set of ‘Rust’ in October, killing the cinematographer and injuring director Joel Souza and now it has been revealed the former ’30 Rock’ star has been named in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Halyna’s husband Matthew and nine-year-old son Andros.
Attorney Brian Panish said at a press conference: “The lawsuit, as you can see, names Alec Baldwin and others who were responsible for the safety on the set, and whose reckless behaviour and cost-cutting led to the senseless and tragic death of Halyna Hutchins.”
The lawsuit blames the actor and others on the set – including armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, and assistant director David Hall – for Halyna’s death as it alleges they were responsible for “numerous violations of industry standards.”
The lawsuit, which was filed in New Mexico on Tuesday (15.02.22), lists alleged lapses in safety which the family believed led to their loved one’s tragic death, including having live ammo on set and the Western’s crew failing to treat the weapon as if it was a loaded gun.
It also claimed Alec was just four feet away from members of the crew when he took the gun from its holster.
The suit stated: “He released the revolver’s hammer, and – BAM – defendant Baldwin fired the revolver.”
Alec and others are accused of taking dangerous cost-cutting measures – including hiring inexperienced armorers and rushed production schedules – and the documents include text messages allegedly sent by a concerned camera operator, who had claimed there had been “three accidental discharges”.
The texts were received by the unit manager, who the lawsuit accused of responding “with callous sarcasm”.
After being told about the “super unsafe” accidental discharges, the unit manager allegedly replied: “Accidental discharge on the firearms? Cool. Sounds good.”
An investigation into the shooting is still ongoing.
Alec previously insisted he didn’t know the gun was loaded and did not pull the trigger when it went off during rehearsal.
He said in December: “I would never point a gun at anyone and pull a trigger at them. The notion there was a live round in that gun did not dawn on me until about 45 minutes later.”