The family of the late cinematographer Halyna Hutchins sued actor Alec Baldwin and other members of the film "Rust," alleging that reckless behavior and cost-cutting led to Hutchins’ wrongful death on set, The Guardian reports. Hutchins, a 42-year-old film veteran, was shot and killed last October while preparing for a scene at the Bonanza Creek Ranch outside Santa Fe, N.M. when a gun held by Baldwin accidentally went off, shocking Hollywood and prompting a reckoning over production safety and the use of weapons on set. Baldwin said in an emotional interview with ABC News that he believed the gun to be safe and did not pull the trigger. “Someone is responsible for what happened, and I can’t say who that is, but it’s not me,” Baldwin said.
The bullet from Baldwin’s gun struck Hutchins in the torso and lodged in the shoulder of the director, Joel Souza. Hutchins was airlifted to a hospital in Albuquerque, where she died. She is survived by her husband, Matthew Hutchins, and a nine-year-old son. The suit also names seven producers and five crew members as defendants. “We’re used to people coming in from out of town to play cowboy who don’t know how to use guns,” said Randi McGinn, the estate’s attorney. “You don’t hand somebody a gun until you give them safety training … No one should ever die with a real gun on a make-believe movie set.” The film’s producers, including Baldwin, say the case should be thrown out because it involves a workplace accident, and should go through the state’s worker compensation system.