Alec Baldwin has filed a lawsuit against some former crew members of the movie “Rust,” where a shooting incident resulted in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins last year.
The 64-year-old actor “seeks to clear his name,” new court documents filed in Los Angeles say, as he claims to have suffered loss of status and income after the prop gun he was holding discharged and killed Hutchins in October 2021 while the movie was filming in New Mexico, People reported.
“More than anyone else on that set, Baldwin has been wrongfully viewed as the perpetrator of this tragedy,” the lawsuit states.
Some people named in the newest lawsuit are armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed, assistant director David Halls, prop master Sarah Zachry, and armorer assistant Seth Kenney. Kenney’s prop weapon and ammunition supply store company is also listed as Baldwin seeks damages.
The suit says these individuals “owed a duty to those on set, including Baldwin, to keep the set safe. Everyone on set, including Baldwin, expected and trusted them to do so.”
The lawsuit continues, “This tragedy occurred on a movie set — not a gun range, not a battlefield, not a location where even a remote possibility should exist that a gun would contain live ammunition. It occurred under the supervision of a professional armorer, Gutierrez-Reed, and the First Assistant Director, Halls, who were hired to protect the actors and crew on set.”
“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,” it says.
The “30 Rock” actor is seeking “compensatory, nominal, statutory, and punitive damages.”
In October, Baldwin and Rust Movie Productions LLC reached a settlement with the Hutchins’ estate for an undisclosed amount over a wrongful death suit filed in February.
“The filming of ‘Rust,’ which I will now executive produce, will resume with all the original principal players on board in January 2023,” Halyna’s husband, Matthew Hutchins, said in a statement, as The Daily Wire previously reported.
“I have no interest in engaging in recriminations or attribution of blame (to the producers or Mr. Baldwin). All of us believe Halyna’s death was a terrible accident,” he continued. “I am grateful that the producers and the entertainment community have come together to pay tribute to Halyna’s final work.”