The family of Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer of ‘Rust’, has officially filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Alec Baldwin, who accidentally took the filmmaker’s life last October in New Mexico.
While rehearsing a scene for the film, Baldwin held a prop gun, which was also loaded with live ammunition that cost the cinematographer her life.
Director Joel Souza was also injured in the shooting, which occurred when Alec practiced a revolver draw.
The lawsuit was filed in the state of New Mexico, where the tragedy occurred, against the actor and “others responsible for the security of the set during filming,” reported the family’s lawyer, Brian Panish, at a press conference from his firm’s headquarters in downtown Los Angeles.
“Halyna Hutchins deserved to live, and the defendants had the power to prevent her death if only they would have considered their duty to protect the safety of every individual on a set where firearms were present rather than cutting corners through security procedures where human lives were at stake, rushing to meet schedule and ignoring numerous complaints of security violations,” states the complaint against Baldwin, which also names some key members such as gunsmith Hannah Gutierrez Reed and deputy director David Halls, who were at the center of the tragic incident of the 15 October of last year.
The attorney representing Mathew and Andros, husband and son of Hutchins, submitted a list of at least 15 industry standard procedures that they said were ignored by the producers on set.
These include not using prop weapons instead of a real revolver, absence of people qualified to handle weapons in the set and lack of protective equipment for workers.
Furthermore, the lawyer also argued that Baldwin refused to receive training to draw the weapon.
Through This lawsuit, the first one undertaken by Halyna’s family, requests financial compensation for the damages caused, which will have to be determined in court.
Finally, although the criminal investigation is ongoing, so far no one has been arrested or charged with criminal charges.
At least three other lawsuits have been filed over the shooting. Among them stands out the one filed by Serge Svetnoy, lighting director of the western, against Baldwin for negligence.
For her part, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed sued the production’s ammunition supplier last January, accusing him of putting real bullets in prop cartridges.