'Rust' chief electrician reportedly sues Alec Baldwin, armorer and assistant director for negligence
- "Rust" chief electrician Serge Svetnoy filed a negligence lawsuit.
- It's against Baldwin, the film's assistant director, and its armorer.
The chief electrician on the set of "Rust" has filed a negligence lawsuit against actor Alec Baldwin as well as the film's assistant director and armorer over the fatal shooting of a cinematographer.
Serge Svetnoy alleges that the bullet that struck and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza on the New Mexico movie set "narrowly missed him," Rolling Stone reported Wednesday.
"Discharge materials from this blast struck plaintiff directly," the lawsuit states, according to Rolling Stone.
The suit goes on to say: "The bullet narrowly missed him before striking the film's director of photography, Halyna Hutchins, and its director Joel Souza. Plaintiff suffered injury, including severe emotional distress, as a direct and proximate result of this incident."
The gun was supposed to be loaded with harmless "dummy" rounds, but a live bullet was somehow loaded into the firearm instead, authorities said.
Authorities are still investigating the shooting and have not ruled out potential criminal charges.
"Rust" is an independently-produced Western in which Baldwin plays an outlaw who rescues his 13-year-old grandson who is sentenced to hang for manslaughter.
According to the Los Angeles Times, several members of the camera crew walked off set to protest safety conditions hours before the shooting occurred.
According to the affidavits that were included in search warrant documents for the movie set, the gun that Baldwin used was one of three that was "set up" by the film's armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed and left on a cart.
The firearm was then grabbed by the movie's assistant director, Dave Halls, who took it to Baldwin for a scene inside a church building on the set, according to the police documents.
As Halls handed the gun to Baldwin, Halls yelled out "cold gun," indicating that it did not contain any live rounds before the incident, according to the documents.
Someone shouted, "Medic!" as crewmembers frantically gathered around Hutchins to try to stop the bleeding after Baldwin fired the gun, according to a Los Angeles Times story.
"Oh, that was no good," a boom operator reportedly said. Hutchins replied with: "No…that was no good. That was no good at all," the news outlet reported.
Hours later, Hutchins was pronounced dead at University of New Mexico Hospital.
Halls said he did not know live rounds were in the gun when he handed it to Baldwin, the affidavit says.
Gutierrez-Reed, the head armorer, previously told a podcast she almost didn't take her previous job because she wasn't sure if she was experienced enough. "Rust" was her second movie as a head armorer.