“The absence of such allegations of course makes sense because the Incident is apparently unprecedented in the filmmaking industry,” the document adds, apparently overlooking past film set deaths like Brandon Lee shooting death on 1994’s The Crow.
“Alec Baldwin should have assumed that the gun in question was loaded unless and until it was demonstrated to him or checked by him that it was not loaded,” the filing proclaimed in language echoed at a press conference Mitchell and Allred held soon after filing the lawsuit last year “He had no right to rely upon some alleged statement by the Assistant Director that it was a ‘cold gun,’” the wide ranging damages-seeking complaint goes on to say, adding Assistant Director David Halls.
Having since admitted he didn’t examine the weapon properly before giving it to the actor, Halls, along with Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed has been at the center of the cops’ investigation. As her lawyers have floated a sabotage on the safety and labor problem plagued production, Gutierrez Reed launched her own legal action earlier this month against the film’s so-called armorer/mentor Seth Kenney and his Albuquerque-based PDQ Arm and Prop.company.