American movie ‘Rust’ crew member, Serge Svetnoy has filed a lawsuit against several people including Alec Baldwin due to the fatal on-set shooting that claimed the life of the film’s cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins.
Svetnoy served as the chief lighting technician on set.
The crew member’s filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles. The suit is against various companies and individuals involved with the film, including producers and two crew members. Svetnoy accused Baldwin, assistant director David Halls, armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed and others of negligence that caused him “severe emotional distress.”
This is coming after Baldwin fired a weapon during rehearsal on the set of the movie last month. This resulted in the death of the movie’s cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins. It also resulted in an injury of the director Joel Souza. According to reports, the actor had no idea the weapon contained a live round.
“Simply put, there was no reason for a live bullet to be placed in that .45 Colt revolver or to be present anywhere on the Rust set, and the presence of a bullet in a revolver posed a lethal threat to everyone in its vicinity.”
“Discharge materials” from the blast struck Svetnoy . According to the lawsuit, he narrowly missed the bullet. The crew member cites the failure of the film’s producers to hire a competent and experienced armorer, as one of the reasons for the incident. The lawsuit reads in part,
“Plaintiff is informed and believes, and on such information and belief alleges that the ammunition used on the ‘Rust’ set was never stored securely. They were simply left unattended in the prop truck.” (sic)
The lawsuit revealed that Svetnoy and Hutchins were close friends. They had worked on nine films together since 2017.
The crew member has previously spoken of his trauma from the incident. He posted on Facebook that he “was holding her in my arms while she was dying.”. And “her blood was on my hands.”. He also shared on Facebook what he referred to as the last photo of Hutchins on the film set in New Mexico.
