Alec Baldwin has filed a lawsuit in a bid to "clear his name" following last year's fatal shooting on the set of Rust, citing claims that various crew members had been negligent, NBC News reports.
Hutchins, a 42-year-old cinematographer, was fatally shot on October 21, 2021, while preparing for a scene on a set in Santa Fe, New Mexico, when a gun held by Baldwin accidentally went off.
Baldwin had claimed in a tearful interview with ABC News that he did not pull the trigger of the gun at the time of the shooting.
At the time of the accident, Baldwin had been pointing the firearm at Hutchins during rehearsals for a scene when it suddenly went off, fatally striking Hutchins' chest and injuring director Joel Souza.
As part of a countersuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday, Baldwin's lawyers accuse the following defendants of negligence: armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, assistant director David Halls, props master Sarah Zachry, guns and ammunition supplier Seth Kenney, and Kenney's business, PDQ Arm and Prop.
By filing the legal documents, Baldwin hopes "to clear his name," as he has been "wrongfully viewed as the perpetrator", the papers state.
The 64-year-old 30 Rock star also aims to hold the defendants "accountable."
The cross-complaint's defendants are the same in a suit filed by script supervisor, Mamie Mitchell. Baldwin's filing seeks a share of any damages that Mitchell may receive from the people Baldwin has named and requests that they cover any damages assessed against him.
Mitchell sued Baldwin, who was a producer on the movie, as well as the production company and several others.
"There can be no doubt that others have suffered from Cross-Defendants’ negligence far more than Baldwin has," the actor's lawsuit reads. "Baldwin must live with the immense grief, and the resulting emotional, physical, and financial toll, caused by the fact that Cross-Defendants’ negligent conduct, assurances, and supervision put a loaded weapon in his hand and led him, Hutchins, and everyone else on set to believe that his directed use of the weapon was safe."
The documents blame the the death on live bullets that were delivered to set and loaded into the firearm that Gutierrez-Reed "failed to check," that Halls also "failed to check the gun" before announcing the prop weapon was safe and Zachary "failed to disclose that Gutierrez-Reed had been acting recklessly off set."
The filing also claims that, as an actor, Baldwin was not responsible for checking the ammunition in the gun and that he's "lost numerous job opportunities and associated income" as a result of the fatal incident.