Alec Baldwin fired prop gun, killing 1 on movie set, Oct 2021 #4

[Deleted member 158085]

Remember, he initially says he doesn't want anyone to go through what he, her husband and son, and AB went through. Trust me when I say it will be a thing when they see how he went from listing AB alongside the victims who will suffer from the day's tragedy to suing him as the deepest pocket named in the lawsuit.

It already looks a little grubby. It has the appearance of knowing he just can't get enough out of a lawsuit against those he actually blames, and so he needed to add a deeper pocket to make it worthwhile. Why not add AB since there's a segment of the population who blames him anyway. Jump on that bandwagon because there's cash there. Had he not made those previous statements, the word "grubby" would not have popped into my head when I saw the lawsuit.

But he did and it does.

 

[10ofRods]

I think legally he has no choice but to sue all the producers, they are the ones who are liable.

You can feel badly for someone and still sue them. Family members sue each other all the time, if there's a legal cause of action and the court allows it. There's not going to be any trouble keeping this case in the California courts.

I was pretty amazed by how "all over the map" the defendants are. Many are incorporated in, or living in Los Angeles, and I'm guessing the documents for this production were inked there. I think the plaintiff gets a choice, then, on where to sue. Defendants come additionally from New York, Georgia and Arizona. There may be one from New Mexico too, need to reread.

 

[JudgeJoe]

Remember, he initially says he doesn't want anyone to go through what he, her husband and son, and AB went through. Trust me when I say it will be a thing when they see how he went from listing AB alongside the victims who will suffer from the day's tragedy to suing him as the deepest pocket named in the lawsuit.

It already looks a little grubby. It has the appearance of knowing he just can't get enough out of a lawsuit against those he actually blames, and so he needed to add a deeper pocket to make it worthwhile. Why not add AB since there's a segment of the population who blames him anyway. Jump on that bandwagon because there's cash there. Had he not made those previous statements, the word "grubby" would not have popped into my head when I saw the lawsuit.

But he did and it does.

But is this lawsuit surprising? A woman is dead, another was injured, and this gaffer was so close to this whizzing bullet that his glasses were scratched. I don’t believe this is about the deeper pockets. I think this is about the reality & gravity of that day setting in. I think he’s just now learning who ignored safety measures and how. Kind of hard to see it clearly in the first moments when your glasses and hearing are damaged and your hands are covered in your friend’s blood. I think he’s realizing much in retrospect & with facts emerging. I think his initial post means nothing. Imo.

Alec Baldwin shooting lawsuit: 'Rust' gaffer nearly hit by a bullet claims negligence

 

[mickey2942]

I believe that this entire situation is going to be a huge game changer for Hollywood, and guns on sets. While shootings are extremely rare, the danger is there.
Halyna Hutchins' Death Could Change the Way Guns Are Used In Hollywood

Especially if actors who do the shooting can be held liable.

 

[Luna20]

This is the NBC article I mentioned up thread. It has the video with the attorney speaking.

‘Rust’ crew member sues Alec Baldwin, others in fatal on-set shooting

 

[Lux et Veritas]

Hannah Gutierrez Reed wasn’t the only weapons expert working on 'Rust.' Who was the ‘armorer mentor’?

How much of an "armorer mentor" can you be if you're never even on set?

 

[Cool Cats]

DA investigating Alec Baldwin Rust shooting knows who loaded gun that killed Halyna Hutchins

Ms Carmack-Altwies said she knew who loaded the gun that Baldwin discharged while rehearsing on set, but declined to comment further on the subject.

During the interview, Ms Carmack-Altwies also refuted claims of sabotage by a “disgruntled” crew member.

Ms Carmack-Altwies district attorney

While discussing the case on Wednesday, Ms Carmack-Altwies said: “I know that some defence attorneys have come up with conspiracy theories and have used the word ‘sabotage’. We do not have any proof.”

She added that the prosecution doesn’t have the “same information” defence attorneys do, and till it is made available to investigating authorities, “it doesn’t play into the decision making process”.

The DA also said that she was aware more live rounds were found on set, in addition to the bullet that claimed Hutchins’s life, but did not reveal the exact number. She admitted that the question of how live rounds made their way to the set remains one of the most important factors “going into a charging decision”.

Ms Carmack-Altwies explained: “It’s probably more important to focus on what led up to the shooting because the moment of the shooting, we know that at least Mr Baldwin had no idea that the gun was loaded, so it’s more how did that gun get loaded, what levels of failure happened and were those levels of failure criminal?”

She also denied the claim that Rust assistant director David Halls did not handle the prop gun on the day of the shooting.

Last week, an attorney for Rust armourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed alleged that someone had placed a live round in a box of dummy rounds with the purpose of “sabotaging” the set of the film.

The armourer has claimed that she loaded the gun from a box of rounds labelled “dummy,” indicating they were blank rounds.

 

[jjenny]

Paragraph 47 is significant. Plaintiff asserts that the script did not call for the gun to be pointed directly at the camera. This will be verified (or not) in discovery, when a copy of the script will be subpoenaed and the scriptwriters deposed. Until that time the issue of what the script called for (and implications of that) should be viewed as being technically in dispute, although it would be unusual for an attorney to make such a significant assertion without being confident that it would be backed up in discovery.

I don't think you read the paragraph 47 correctly. It asserts that script called for the gun to be pointed in the general direction of the camera.

 

[Gardenista]

But is this lawsuit surprising? A woman is dead, another was injured, and this gaffer was so close to this whizzing bullet that his glasses were scratched. I don’t believe this is about the deeper pockets. I think this is about the reality & gravity of that day setting in. I think he’s just now learning who ignored safety measures and how. Kind of hard to see it clearly in the first moments when your glasses and hearing are damaged and your hands are covered in your friend’s blood. I think he’s realizing much in retrospect & with facts emerging. I think his initial post means nothing. Imo.

Alec Baldwin shooting lawsuit: 'Rust' gaffer nearly hit by a bullet claims negligence

Agree. Also, he may not have known at the time of the FB post that the scene did not call for AB to pull the trigger.

 

[Deleted member 158085]

But is this lawsuit surprising? A woman is dead, another was injured, and this gaffer was so close to this whizzing bullet that his glasses were scratched. I don’t believe this is about the deeper pockets. I think this is about the reality & gravity of that day setting in. I think he’s just now learning who ignored safety measures and how. Kind of hard to see it clearly in the first moments when your glasses and hearing are damaged and your hands are covered in your friend’s blood. I think he’s realizing much in retrospect & with facts emerging. I think his initial post means nothing. Imo.

Alec Baldwin shooting lawsuit: 'Rust' gaffer nearly hit by a bullet claims negligence

Nope. Not a surprise.

 

[DI_Isokawa]

I don't think you read the paragraph 47 correctly. It asserts that script called for the gun to be pointed in the general direction of the camera.

With respect, the two are not the same thing. If the script call for a duplicate of the famous Edwin S. Porter frame of the gun pointing directly at the camera and then firing a blank, the safety drill is that the camera must be operated remotely. If the script calls for the gun to be pointed off to the side the crew can be behind the camera. This is covered in the Washington Post article I linked to.

I've done technical reviews of lawsuit complaints prior to filing and and my experience has been they are very carefully worded.

In any case the text of the script will be released or leaked in the future and the issue will be resolved then.

 

[DI_Isokawa]

Agree. Also, he may not have known at the time of the FB post that the scene did not call for AB to pull the trigger.

But AB had to *advertiser censored* the weapon and then pull the trigger for it to fire. Did the scene call for him to *advertiser censored* the weapon? We don't know.

 

[Gardenista]

With respect, the two are not the same thing. If the script call for a duplicate of the famous Edwin S. Porter frame of the gun pointing directly at the camera and then firing a blank, the safety drill is that the camera must be operated remotely. If the script calls for the gun to be pointed off to the side the crew can be behind the camera. This is covered in the Washington Post article I linked to.

I've done technical reviews of lawsuit complaints prior to filing and and my experience has been they are very carefully worded.

In any case the text of the script will be released or leaked in the future and the issue will be resolved then.

This is all I've seen of the script

This ‘Rust’ scene led to the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins

 

[jjenny]

With respect, the two are not the same thing. If the script call for a duplicate of the famous Edwin S. Porter frame of the gun pointing directly at the camera and then firing a blank, the safety drill is that the camera must be operated remotely. If the script calls for the gun to be pointed off to the side the crew can be behind the camera. This is covered in the Washington Post article I linked to.

I've done technical reviews of lawsuit complaints prior to filing and and my experience has been they are very carefully worded.

In any case the text of the script will be released or leaked in the future and the issue will be resolved then.

There wasn't supposed to be a blank in the gun. Gun was supposed to have been loaded with dummies, not blanks. Per paragraph 47, script called for Baldwin to point the gun in the general direction of the camera.

 

[DI_Isokawa]

This is all I've seen of the script

This ‘Rust’ scene led to the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins

That reads much more like a treatment rather than a shooting script. And it is not consistent with reports of AB's actions. Interestingly, the 911 call includes what appears to be an aside by the script supervisor about script revisions:

‘He’s Responsible’: 911 Call Reveals Frantic Aftermath of Prop-Gun Shooting

 

[Gardenista]

That reads much more like a treatment rather than a shooting script. And it is not consistent with reports of AB's actions. Interestingly, the 911 call includes what appears to be an aside by the script supervisor about script revisions:

‘He’s Responsible’: 911 Call Reveals Frantic Aftermath of Prop-Gun Shooting

That, or the reporter summarized a script they were provided. Seems like a film reporter for the LA Times would know the difference, but maybe not.

 

[10ofRods]

Lawyers have an obligation, when they take a case, to sue everyone who might be liable, in order to allow discovery so that the court can determine fault.

In California, where the suit was filed, we have proportionate liability. So, for example, in a car accident, a person might sue another, and then be found to be 50% responsible, themselves. Or 10%. Whatever the jury decides. In a case like this, it will be complicated as heck and jurors may use a formula (such as assigning 50% of the blame to HGR and DH, and then apportioning the other 50% among the various production companies. Or, they may find Alec's production company 25% liable because he was a producer who was on set, and also apparently a driving force behind getting the group of production companies together. Or they may find Alec-as-actor and Alec-as-producer jointly responsible for X percentage.

So, when there are multiple defendants and the judgment is high (it will definitely be at least a million in this case, probably $2M), Alec might be held responsible for only $500,000 or so (hopefully he has a good umbrella policy, but who knows). And there's no getting blood from a turnip - so the lawyer's cut depends on showing that the deeper pockets have more liability (a theory that juries often buy, on the view that someone like HGR cannot be held as responsible as the capital-holding interests who concocted the project). I have actually never followed a case closely where there are so many interconnected defendants.

 

[Luna20]

DA investigating Alec Baldwin Rust shooting knows who loaded gun that killed Halyna Hutchins

Ms Carmack-Altwies said she knew who loaded the gun that Baldwin discharged while rehearsing on set, but declined to comment further on the subject.

During the interview, Ms Carmack-Altwies also refuted claims of sabotage by a “disgruntled” crew member.

Ms Carmack-Altwies district attorney

While discussing the case on Wednesday, Ms Carmack-Altwies said: “I know that some defence attorneys have come up with conspiracy theories and have used the word ‘sabotage’. We do not have any proof.”

She added that the prosecution doesn’t have the “same information” defence attorneys do, and till it is made available to investigating authorities, “it doesn’t play into the decision making process”.

The DA also said that she was aware more live rounds were found on set, in addition to the bullet that claimed Hutchins’s life, but did not reveal the exact number. She admitted that the question of how live rounds made their way to the set remains one of the most important factors “going into a charging decision”.

Ms Carmack-Altwies explained: “It’s probably more important to focus on what led up to the shooting because the moment of the shooting, we know that at least Mr Baldwin had no idea that the gun was loaded, so it’s more how did that gun get loaded, what levels of failure happened and were those levels of failure criminal?”

She also denied the claim that Rust assistant director David Halls did not handle the prop gun on the day of the shooting.

Last week, an attorney for Rust armourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed alleged that someone had placed a live round in a box of dummy rounds with the purpose of “sabotaging” the set of the film.

The armourer has claimed that she loaded the gun from a box of rounds labelled “dummy,” indicating they were blank rounds.

I thought it was interesting in an odd way that she would publicly say that she knows who loaded the gun. At this point in the investigation it seems un-necessary to disclose it.

 

[Gardenista]

I think this is the whole PC

 

[Luna20]

I think this is the whole PC

What was your take-away from it?