Alec Baldwin Sues 'Rust' Crew For Negligence, Says He Wants "To Clear His Name"

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Just days before the Santa Fe District Attorney is expected to announced her intentions in the fatal shooting of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins by Alec Baldwin last year, the actor today has slammed crew members of the indie Western with a negligence lawsuit.

“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,” says the cross complaint from Baldwin’s Quinn Emanuel attorney Luke Nikas (read it here).

Filed on a day when Los Angeles Superior Court is closed for the Veterans Day holiday, the cross-complaint for negligence and indemnification names Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed, first assistant director David Halls, property master Sarah Zachry, and weapons and rounds supplier Seth Kenney and his company as defendants. Recently having settled a wrongful death suit with Hutchins’ husband and family and intending to get Rust back on track, Baldwin has long declared that he never pulled the trigger on the 1880s period gun that he was pointing at the cinematographer on October 21, 2021.

In a move that risks backfiring on the now plaintiff, today’s filing makes a point of noting how the aftermath of the shooting has impacted Baldwin’s career.

“Baldwin has also lost numerous job opportunities and associated income,” it says “For example, he’s been fired from multiple jobs expressly because of the incident on Rust and has been passed over for other opportunities, which is a direct result of the negligence of Cross-Defendants Gutierrez-Reed, Halls, Kenney, PDQ, and Zachry.”

Coming just over a week after Baldwin failed to convince a LASC judge to remove him from Rust script supervisor Mamie Mitchell’s own negligence lawsuit or see the matter dismissed, Friday’s filing also claims the Emmy winning has suffered personal consequences from the horrible October 2021 incident. “More than anyone else on that set, Baldwin has been wrongfully viewed as the perpetrator of this tragedy,” the actor’s lawyer writes of his client who held the gun that killed DoP Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza. “By these Cross-Claims, Baldwin seeks to clear his name and hold Cross-Defendants accountable for their misconduct.”

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