Seeking to ‘clear his name,’ Alec Baldwin files suit alleging negligence in ‘Rust’ shooting

Alex Baldwin as filed a lawsuit over the shooting on the set of “Rust,” which Baldwin starred in and produced, in an attempt to “clear his name.”

Baldwin’s lawsuit accuses the following parties of negligence; armorer Hannah Guttierez-Reed; prop master Sarah Zachry; first assistant director and safety coordinator David Halls, who handed Baldwin the gun; ammunition supplier Seth Kenney and his company, PDQ Arm & Prop, which also supplied prop weapons for the production.

All of those named on Baldwin’s lawsuit have denied any responsibility for the shooting.

“This tragedy happened because live bullets were delivered to the set and loaded into the gun,” Baldwin’s lawyer, Luke Nikas, said in the lawsuit.

Baldwin was the one holding the gun, a Colt .45 revolver, which he said should have been “cold”, not loaded with live rounds, when he shot Hutchins, and also hit the director Souza in the shoulder. Baldwin remains adamant that he never even pulled the trigger.

The lawsuit specifically blames armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed for having “failed to perform her job carefully and as a result a live round was loaded into the gun that she had negligently failed to identify.”

“More than anyone else on that set, Baldwin has been wrongfully viewed as the perpetrator of this tragedy,” his attorney said, according to NBC News. “By these Cross-Claims, Baldwin seeks to clear his name and hold Cross-Defendants accountable for their misconduct.”

According to the lawsuit, Baldwin has suffered “immense grief” as well as an “emotional, physical and financial toll” as a result of the shooting.