Alec Baldwin, ‘Rust’ movie sued by Halyna Hutchins’ family

Actor Alec Baldwin is among several defendants named in a wrongful death suit following the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of “Rust” in October.

On Tuesday, Matthew Hutchins filed a lawsuit in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on behalf of himself and his son Andros Hutchins, alleging that Baldwin recklessly fatally shot Hutchins’ 42-year-old wife and that the “Rust” production failed to perform industry-standard safety checks or follow basic gun safety rules.

“Halyna Hutchins deserved to live, and the defendants had the power to prevent her death if they had only held sacrosanct their duty to protect the safety of every individual on a set where firearms were present instead of cutting corners on safety procedures where human lives were at stake, rushing to stay on schedule and ignoring numerous complaints of safety violations,” the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages, including punitive damages. No criminal charges have been filed by the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office, and the investigation is reported to be ongoing.

This lawsuit is only one of several that have been filed in the wake of the incident. Hutchins’ family is being represented by Panish Shea Boyle Ravipudi, with Brian Panish acting as lead attorney, as well as the law firm Montoya, Love and Curry with Randi McGinn acting as lead lawyer.

“Any claim that Alec was reckless is entirely false,” said Aaron Dyer, of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, an attorney for Alec Baldwin and other producers of “Rust,” in a statement.

“He, Halyna and the rest of the crew relied on the statement by the two professionals responsible for checking the gun that it was a “cold gun” — meaning there is no possibility of a discharge, blank or otherwise,” he said.

Dyer added that his clients continue to cooperate with authorities to determine how live ammunition arrived on the set in the first place.

Investigators probing the fatal movie set shooting found a lead projectile in the shoulder of director Joel Souza, who was injured during the incident in New Mexico, that they believe was the cause of death for Hutchins.

Around 500 rounds were found on the set, which were a mix of blank ammunition, dummy rounds and live rounds.

Court documents released in October show Baldwin was handed a loaded weapon by an assistant director who indicated it was safe to use in the moments before the actor fatally shot Halyna Hutchins. A search warrant filed in a Santa Fe court shows that the assistant director did not know the prop gun was loaded with live rounds.