First Negligence Lawsuit Against Alec Baldwin Following Deadly Accident: “Multiple Guns Left Unattended”

The head of lighting for the film ‘Rust’, Serge Svetnoy, has presented the first lawsuit against American actor and producer Alec Baldwin and other members of the production of that film after the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during filming.

At a press conference in Los Angeles, Svetnoy, who was also wounded by the bullet that killed Hutchins, said that saw “firsthand that various weapons were left unattended, on the ground and unsupervised” throughout the filming at Bonanza Creek Ranch, in Santa Fe (New Mexico, USA).

For these conditions on set and the subsequent fatal accident, Svetnoy filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court for negligence against the film’s producers, including Baldwin, as well as against the assistant director and the person in charge of arms control.

In that court document, the lighting expert blamed weapons manager Hannah Gutierrez-Reed for accept a job above your experience in a shoot in which “several auxiliary gunsmiths were necessary to safely handle” those weapons.

According to the lawsuit, Gutierrez-Reed “negligently allowed” a Colt revolver caliber 45 with at least one live bullet was turned over to Deputy Director David Halls, who also failed to inspect the gun properly and subsequently gave it to Baldwin.

Furthermore, Svetnoy claimed that Baldwin also “had a duty” to verify “twice” that the revolver was not loaded with live ammunition before pulling the trigger. “This duty also required him to handle the Colt revolver as if it were loaded and to refrain from pointing it at anyone”the lawsuit alleges.

At the press conference, Svetnoy said that is “convinced” that producers are largely to blame for allegedly attempting to “save money by hiring insufficient numbers of workers to safely handle accessories and firearms correctly on the set of ‘Rust.’

“Because the use of firearms and live ammunition in movies represents an inherently dangerous activity, the producers of Rust had a duty to hire trained and experienced people to carefully supervise the use of firearms and ammunition in the filming of the film “Svetnoy added in her complaint.

As the official inquiries progress, other details have become known, such as that Halls, who gave the pistol to Baldwin, was fired from another shoot in 2019 for a similar incident although, fortunately, no one was injured.

Halls acknowledged in October that did not check the gun he handed to Baldwin before rehearsing the scene because he was convinced it contained fake bullets.