The family of Halyna Hutchins, the cameraman fatally shot by Alec Baldwin on the set of the movie “Rest” last year, filed a culpable homicide lawsuit in New Mexico on Tuesday against crew members and producers, including Mr. Baldwin.
The lawsuit filed by Mrs. Hutchins’ widower, Matthew Hutchins; her 9-year-old son; and the personal representative of Mrs. Hutchins’ estate, accused Mr. Baldwin and the other defendants of reckless conduct and cost-cutting measures that endangered the crew, including failure to comply with standard security checks and gun safety rules.
“Halyna Hutchins deserved to live, and the defendants had the power to prevent her death if they only kept their duty to protect the safety of every individual on a set where firearms were present,” the lawsuit said, “rather than cuts to security procedures that put human lives at risk, rush to stay on track and ignore numerous complaints of security violations.”
Ms. Hutchins, 42, was shot on Oct. 21 while production was setting up camera angles for a scene in which Mr. Baldwin pulls an old-fashioned revolver from a shoulder holster. Shortly before the gun went off and fired a bullet that killed Ms. Hutchins and injured Joel Souza, the film’s director, the crew had been informed that the revolver contained no live ammunition and was safe to handle.
The lawsuit accused Mr Baldwin of “reckless” shooting and killing of Mrs Hutchins. Mr. Baldwin has said in the past that he was not responsible for her death. “Someone put a sharp bullet in a gun that shouldn’t have even been on the property,” Mr Baldwin said in a television interview with ABC in December. “Someone is responsible for what happened, and I can’t say who that is, but I know it’s not me.”
What happened on the set of ‘Rest’
At a news conference, lawyers for Hutchins played a video that used animation to mimic what they said happened the day of the shooting, based on interviews with crew members and at one point including Mr. Baldwin’s story from the ABC interview.
The lawsuit said the defendants should not have allowed live ammunition on set, Mr Baldwin should not have aimed at anyone, and accused the production of “aggressive cost-cutting” that it said “promoted the safety of cast and crew.” The charges alleged that the producers hired an “inexperienced” and “unqualified” gunsmith and that members of the production had disregarded previous firearms on set leading to complaints about the lack of safety.
Brian Panish, a Hutchins attorney, said at a news conference in Los Angeles: “There are many people to blame, but Mr. Baldwin was the person who held the gun that if he hadn’t shot it, she wouldn’t have died. So it’s clear that he has a significant share of the liability, but there are others.”
A lawyer for Mr Baldwin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Last month, lawyers for the Hutchins family indicated they were considering a lawsuit when they asked a court to name a New Mexico representative for Ms. Hutchins’ estate. Under New Mexico law, half of the proceeds from the lawsuit would go to Mr. Hutchins and half to her son.
Ms. Hutchins was a rising cameraman from Ukraine; friends and colleagues described her as devoted to the art of filmmaking.
It remains unclear why there were sharp bullets on the film set and how one of them got into the gun Mr. Baldwin was wielding. The Santa Fe sheriff’s office has been investigating that question since the deadly shooting, but officials have made no new public disclosures about the investigation since last month, when Mr. Baldwin handed over his cell phone to authorities.
Several other lawsuits have been filed in connection with the shooting. Two crew members have filed separate lawsuits in California, arguing that cost-cutting measures by manufacturing contributed to lax compliance with safety protocols and that Mr. Baldwin should have checked the gun was safe to handle. Lawyers for Mr. Baldwin and other producers behind “Rust” filed a motion to dismiss one of the lawsuits, arguing that Mr. Baldwin could not have intentionally fired a live bullet from the gun because he had been told it was “cold”. meaning it contained no live bullets.
Mr Baldwin has denied responsibility for the shooting, saying in the televised interview last year that Ms Hutchins instructed him where to aim the gun when it went off. He said he didn’t pull the trigger, suggesting it could have gone off when he pulled the hammer back.
The lawsuit accused him of acting recklessly.
“If Defendant Baldwin, the producers and the Rust production companies had taken sufficient precautions to ensure firearms safety on the set of Rust or if the basic rules of firearms safety had been followed on the set of Rust on Oct. 21, 2021,” the lawsuit said, ” Halyna Hutchins is said to be alive and embracing her husband and nine-year-old son.”