Alec Baldwin was again the talk of the Internet on Friday regarding the shooting that happened last year on his film “Rust.”
During rehearsal, Baldwin shot the cinematographer Halyna Hutchins killing her and wounding the director. While Baldwin has settled with Hutchins’ family, he is still waiting to hear if he or any of the other people involved with the gun on the set will face charges regarding the shooting.
But on Friday, Baldwin filed a suit against the other people who may have handled or had a connection to the gun including the armorer, the prop master, the assistant director who handed Baldwin the gun, and the supplier of the guns and ammunition.
The suit against the other crew by Baldwin is a cross-complaint in the ongoing case where the script supervisor Mamie Mitchell sued Baldwin for negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress with the shooting. So he’s filing that to deflect the blame to the folks he’s suing.
Baldwin’s attorney, Luke Nikas, tried to fault the crew members rather than Baldwin, including the armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed and prop master Sarah Zachry, saying that they did not maintain safety on set. The suit claims it happened because “live bullets were delivered to the set and loaded into the gun.”
Among Baldwin’s allegations Friday are that armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed had been drinking and using marijuana away from the set, citing text messages to and from Zachry. “Zachry did not air these concerns until after the fatal shooting,” Baldwin’s attorney wrote in the complaint.
Baldwin alleged Zachry knew the armorer was “misplacing things and mixing them up” but did not make her concerns known to the production. Moreover he cited texted messages to Zachry that alleged Gutierrez Reed took the prop guns to a shooting range where “she loaded them with live ammunition and did target practice,” according to the complaint.
Baldwin also alleged the film’s weapons supplier Seth Kenney and his company PDQ stored ammunition without proper labels, segregation, or organization, according to the complaint. “Their cavalier disregard for proper separation between live and dummy ammunition was one of the factors that led to the presence of live ammunition on the set of Rust,” Nikas said in the filing. Nikas cited an FBI analysis, alleging that the gun given to Baldwin in filming was in poor condition.
The actor alleged Halls was supposed to hold safety meetings every single day that weapons were used on set but did not, citing interviews by the New Mexico’s Occupational Health and Safety Bureau.
That leaves out that it was Baldwin who fired the gun and ignores any responsibility that he might have had himself to check and handle the gun correctly. Baldwin denied that he had pulled the trigger on the gun, but an FBI forensic report concluded that it could not have been fired without the trigger being pulled.
More trouble may also be looming for Baldwin on the horizon. Criminal charges are still being considered by District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies. According to this News Nation report, the DA was asking for more than $600,000 to help fund prosecutions in the case, and she was considering bringing charges against up to four people including Baldwin.
If the DA is asking for money, it sure sounds like they may be getting serious about bringing charges and that may be something Baldwin can’t deflect, with either suits or sympathy-seeking television spots.
