Why Alec Baldwin, Rust crew want shooting lawsuit thrown out

Alec Baldwin has made a bizarre claim as he reacted to the lawsuit filed against him over the tragic shooting death of a cinematographer Halyna Hutchinson.

Alec Baldwin and the producers of Rust have called for the dismissal of the lawsuit filed against them by a script supervisor over the tragic shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchinson.

More than two months after Mamie Mitchell took legal action against actor Baldwin and the film’s other producers, the defendants have called for a California judge to dismiss the action.

In the filing, Baldwin and his co-producers have stated there was nothing to suggest the gun was intentionally loaded with live ammunition, Deadline reports.

Bizarrely, they also described the shooting as “unprecedented” in Hollywood, despite the accidental fatal shooting of actor Brandon Lee on the set of the 1994 film The Crow.

Actor Alec Baldwin told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos in an exclusive interview that he had "no idea" how a live bullet got onto the set of his film Rust.

Lee, the son of film legend Bruce Lee, was fatally wounded at the age of 28 in a stunt gone wrong involving a prop gun loaded with improperly made dummy rounds made from live cartridges.

Mitchell was the first person to call 911 after Hutchins was accidentally shot by Baldwin on the film’s set in New Mexico last October.

The Rust filing, in response to Mitchell’s lawsuit, said: “Nothing about plaintiff’s allegations suggest that any of defendants, including Mr Baldwin, intended the prop gun to be loaded with live ammunition.”

“Moreover, nothing about plaintiff’s allegations suggests any of the defendants knew the prop gun contained live ammunition,” the document added.

“The absence of such allegations of course makes sense because the incident is apparently unprecedented in the filmmaking industry.

“Because all three of plaintiff’s causes of action, are based on allegations of negligence that resulted in a workplace accident, they should be dismissed because her exclusive remedy is New Mexico’s Workers’ Compensation Act, not a civil action filed in California State Court,” the filing added.

It comes a week after Baldwin finally handed over his phone to police as they investigate the accidental fatal shooting.

The actor, 63, handed the device into Long Island police on Friday, nearly a month after authorities secured a warrant for it, Page Six reports.

The former 30 Rock star surrendered his phone, which is believed to contain information about the death of Ms Hutchins to the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office, a spokesman confirmed.

Alec Baldwin has finally handed over his phone to police. Picture: Angela Weiss / AFP

“They will conduct the extraction of the data, and then hand the phone over to us,” Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office public information officer Juan Rios said.

The handover came one day after the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office went public with Baldwin’s reluctance to hand over his phone, saying “to date, the cell phone has not been turned over to authorities”.

Police in New Mexico were granted a warrant for the phone on December 16 and Baldwin’s lawyer was notified, but the actor failed to turn it over for weeks.

“Any suggestion that I am not complying with requests or orders, or search warrants about my phone, that’s bulls —. That’s a lie,” Baldwin said in a social media video, posted on January 8.

“Any suggestion that I am not complying with requests or orders, or search warrants about my phone, that’s bulls***. That’s a lie,” Baldwin said in the video.

“It’s a process that takes time. They have to specify what exactly they want.

“They just can’t go through your phone and take, you know, your photos or your love letters to your wife or whatever.

Hannah Gutierrez Reed was an inexperienced armourer. She was working on the set of Rust when Halyna Hutchins was killed by a gun fired by Alex Baldwin. Picture: Facebook

Meantime, the armourer at the centre of the Rust shooting tragedy that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins is laying part of the blame on Alec Baldwin for failing to attend a training session.

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed filed a lawsuit in a New Mexico court claiming Baldwin “ignored” a request to attend a cross draw”session in the week leading up to the tragedy.

Gutierrez-Reed also pointed the finger at Rust’s assistant director David Halls for failing to follow on-set protocol when he allegedly handed Baldwin the weapon, without calling on her to inspect it first, the lawsuit states.

The 24-year-old is suing Seth Kenney and his company PDQ Arm and Prop LLC for allegedly supplying the deadly bullet. Baldwin is not named as a defendant in the suit.

Originally published as Why Alec Baldwin, Rust crew want shooting lawsuit thrown out