On Friday, Alec Baldwin sued the armorer and three other crew members for their roles in the fatal shooting of cameraman Halyna Hutchins on the set of the Western film “Rust.” The shooting was caused by a gun that Baldwin was using during rehearsal.
Baldwin filed a cross-complaint in Los Angeles County Superior Court after another crew member sued him and the others and identified them as defendants.
It’s only one of many lawsuits related to the tragic events of October 21, 2021, which are also the subject of a criminal investigation and may lead to state charges in New Mexico.
Armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, 1st AD Dave Halls, Props Supplier Seth Kenney, and Props Master Sarah Zachry are also named in the counterclaim filed by Baldwin. Requests for comment from Gutierrez-Reed, Halls, and Kenney’s attorneys went unanswered for some time. Reuters was unable to track down a lawyer for Zachry.
A script supervisor said the filming triggered extreme mental distress, and she sued Baldwin and the other four involved.
Baldwin has filed a counterclaim, alleging negligence and asking the court to award him compensation for the “immense anguish” he has experienced.
Specifically, Baldwin claimed in her cross complaint that the tragedy occurred 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.”
Baldwin’s attorney at Quinn Emanuel, Luke Nikas, drafted the complaint.
Baldwin was practicing with a handgun on set in New Mexico when it accidentally discharged, striking Hutchins and film director Joel Souza (who later died).
The actor claimed in a television interview that he cocked the Colt.45 pistol but did not draw the trigger.
The single-action revolver “functioned normally” and did not discharge when the trigger was not pushed, according to an FBI forensic analysis.
