Alec Baldwin 'intentionally' fired gun even though scene did not call for it, says script supervisor
According to a new complaint filed on Wednesday, November 17, Alec Baldwin "intentionally" shot cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the 'Rust' movie set, breaking set rules in the fatal shooting.
Mamie Mitchell, the script supervisor on set who called 911 when Hutchins was killed and director Joel Souza was injured after the shooting on October 21, stated, "I saw Alec going through his movement with the gun for the camera."
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“I was holding my script in my left hand and had taken out my iPhone and opened up my photos to check the continuity on his shirt and vest. Then an explosion. Deafening loud gunshot.” she added. “I was stunned. I heard someone moaning and I turned around and my director was falling backward and holding his upper body and I turned around toward Alec and saw Halyna going down to the left of me,” said Mitchell.
Mitchell issued a lawsuit in which she claims, “Alec Baldwin intentionally, without just cause or excuse, cocked and fired and loaded gun even though the upcoming scene to be filmed did not call for the cocking and firing of a firearm.” She said that the actions that were taken that day were all against the safety norms. She said presence of real ammunition on the sets was enough to conclude firearm safety norms were ignored.
In the lawsuit against the actor and the movie production firm, Hanna Gutierrez-Reed, who worked as an armorer on the set of 'Rust', is also named as a defendant.
Gloria Allred, Mitchell's attorney, said there were warning indications of unsafe situations on the set relating to guns just days before the October 21 massacre, during a press conference in Los Angeles.
A camera operator detected two gunshots during practice in one of the cabin shots, she added. "This is incredibly risky," the camera operator allegedly texted to a production manager, according to Allred.
The actions leading up to the incident, according to the attorney, were not "mere negligence" because Baldwin, the producers, and others were "reckless" in not following right standards when it came to keeping live ammunition and guns on site.
Baldwin, "being an industry veteran," Mitchell claims, should have understood that only a prop master or an armorer should deliver him a gun, according to the complaint. Mitchell claimed that an assistant director should not have given Baldwin the gun and that the actor should have realized that the assistant director's claim that it was a "cold gun" was false.
