Halyna Hutchins’ family has filed a lawsuit against Alec Baldwin, alleging that Baldwin was responsible for the death of the cinematographer on the set of the film “Rust.”
The family of Halyna Hutchins is suing Alec Baldwin and seven other producers of the flop indie western Rust for wrongful death. In spite of his claims that he was not the one who pulled the trigger that ended in the death of 42-year-old cinematographer Hutchins on the set of a movie he was working on, Baldwin has been continuously convicted of the tragedy. He has attempted to distance himself from the incident in subsequent months, but he has been slapped with lawsuits.
After almost four months, Hutchins died in an unintentional shooting that horrified the entertainment industry and prompted the rest of the world to wonder how on earth a real pistol, loaded with live bullets, ended up on a movie set. In the original version of the story, Baldwin was handed a pistol while preparing for a part in Rust, an independent western in which he was both producer and star. After pointing the rifle directly at the camera, Baldwin allegedly squeezed the trigger, at which time the firearm went off, hitting Hutchins and director Joel Souza. Hutchins was airlifted to a hospital in Albuquerque, but he was subsequently declared dead there as well. Souza was injured in the shoulder and was sent to the hospital for treatment. Baldwin, on the other hand, denied everything within weeks, from having aimed the pistol at Hutchins to not having pressed the trigger to charges that he was not cooperating with the police investigation.
Throughout the course of the inquiry into Hutchins’ death, her family has kept a low profile and has typically refrained from pointing the finger at Baldwin. However, this is about to change. According to a story in The Guardian, Hutchins’ family has now filed a lawsuit against Baldwin and seven other Rust producers in response to the incident. It is claimed in the suit that Hutchins’s death was the result of reckless behavior and cost-cutting measures. However, Baldwin and other defendants in the suit argue that the case should be dismissed because it qualifies as a workplace accident and must therefore be handled through New Mexico’s worker compensation system.
This is the second complaint brought against Baldwin in as many months, after a claim filed against him by the film’s gaffer, Serge Svetnoy, in November for negligence. Despite the fact that Svetnoy was not physically hurt as a result of the tragedy, he claims that he suffered mental suffering as a result of the bullet nearly striking him and the fact that he cradled Hutchins in his arms as she lay dying. Baldwin has just returned to work on a new project for the first time since the filming of Rust was completed, with the production of the film unlikely to restart anytime soon. Despite this, despite all that has transpired over the course of the previous four months, Baldwin has maintained his anguish over the disaster, while gently striving to separate himself from any responsibility for it.
It didn’t take long for it to become evident that something didn’t go right on the Rust set when the immediate shock of the shooting began to wear off. It obviously looks as though some level of carelessness was responsible for the presence of real ammo in a live gun, and as a producer on the picture, Baldwin has part of the responsibility for the incident. It appeared as though it was just a matter of time before Hutchins’ family pursued legal action against Baldwin, given that there does not appear to be a single individual who can be held responsible for the tragic incident.
