As lawsuits amount gainst him and the other producers of the doomed film Western Rust, Alec Baldwin‘s attorneys filed a motion to try to absolve him from the fatal shot he fired at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
Hutchins was mortally wounded on October 21 of last year an director Joel Souza was injured when a live round in a Colt-style pistol Baldwin aimed at her during rehearsal discharged. Baldwin insisted to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that he didn’t pull the trigger, and claimed he was assured the gun was “cold,” or safe.
A criminal investigation into the shooting is ongoing.
“[S]omeone should be held legally culpable for the tragic consequences,” says Friday’s filing by Baldwin’s attorney, Luke Nikas, but declares, “That person is not Alec Baldwin.”
“Baldwin is an actor,” the filing continues. “He didn’t announce that the gun was ‘cold’ when it really contained a live round; he didn’t load the gun; he didn’t check the bullets in the gun; he didn’t purchase the bullets; he didn’t make the bullets and represent that they were dummies; he wasn’t in charge of firearm safety on the set; he didn’t hire the people who supplied the bullets or checked the gun; and he played no role in managing the movie’s props. Each of those jobs was performed by someone else.”
Last month, Hutchins’ widower filed a wrongful death suit against Baldwin, one of the producers on the film. To NBC’s Today show, Matt Hutchins said, “The idea that the person holding the gun and causing it to discharge is not responsible is absurd to me.”
As for Baldwin’s interview with Stephanopoulos, Hutchins said, “Watching him, I just felt so angry. I was just so angry to see him talk about her death so publicly in such a detailed way and then to not accept any responsibility after having just described killing her.”
Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
