Wealthy TV star Alec Baldwin is suing a bunch of working people to cover his wealthy butt in the accidental shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins:
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 Friday has slammed crew members of the indie Western with a negligence lawsuit.
Filed on a day when Los Angeles Superior Court is closed for the Veterans Day holiday, the photo- and email-heavy 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.
The wealthy star…
The guy who didn’t check the gun…
The guy who pulled the trigger…
He’s the one suing…
And he’s suing an armorer, an assistant director, a property master, and a supplier.
Get this from the suit:
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.
Hey, guess who else “failed to check the gun carefully?” And only one peron — Sir Alec — pointed this unchecked gun at a woman and pulled the trigger. Baldwin laughably claims he didn’t pull the trigger, but a forensic investihgation of the gun in question says there was no other way to fire the gun.
Of course there wasn’t.
Guns do not fire themselves.
Baldwin claims the shooting death the Hutchins (the Rust director was also seriously injured by the shot) cost him work and everyone’s to blame but him—you know, everyone’s to blame other than the guy who didn’t check the gun, the guy who pointed it at another person, and who, according to the investigation, pulled the trigger.
Don’t you understand? Don’t you get it? Alec Baldwin is the victim here.
More than many, I’ve given Baldwin every benefit of the doubt in this matter. When it comes to such things, even the tragic death of a young wife and mother, intent matters to me. Under no scenario do I believe Baldwin intended to kill or hurt anyone.
Something else matters, though, and that is negligence. And there is no question Badlwin was negligent. From the looks of it, so too were a lot of other people, including many if not all of those named in Baldwin’s suit. But once that gun reached Baldwin’s hand, the gun was his responsibility. And once it became necessary to point the gun at Hutchins to block the scene properly, he should have been hyper-responsible in making sure that gun was safe.
Legions of actors will tell you that they consider themselves to be the last line of safety when dealing with firearms. They check and re-check to make sure the gun is loaded, either with blanks or dummy bullets. This is very easy to do. If the gun is supposed to have dummy bullets, the actor will point the gun at the ground and repeatedly pull the trigger to ensure the bullets don’t fire. You can also shake a dummy bullet and listen to the beebee rolling around inside the shell.
Baldwin did none of this.
He was unquestionably negligent.
And now this spoiled crybaby is suing a bunch of working people as though he did nothing wrong.
And let’s not forget that as a Rust producer, he also holds responsibility for everyone and everything.
What a tool.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
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