Alec Baldwin Shooting: Who’s Responsible?
The world was shocked when Alec Baldwin mistakenly shot cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Ms. Hutchins died in a New Mexico hospital on October 21st after the actor fired what was supposed to be a “cold gun.” The world wants answers, but it will take months before we have them.
On-set injuries are common. Actors and their stunt doubles occasionally get hurt. Deaths, though rare, have also occurred. Ms. Hutchins’s was not the first on-set shooting death. The case of Brandon Lee comes to mind. Mr. Lee, the son of the late martial artist Bruce Lee, was fatally shot by what was also supposed to be a cold gun while on the set of The Crow. That case has an uncanny resemblance to the current one, and it begs the question why such a tragedy happened again.
Investigators have identified two possible issues with the Alec Baldwin shooting. The first has to do with Assistant Director Dave Halls. The bullet was fired from a Colt revolver after being declared safe by Mr. Halls. We now know that Mr. Halls did not ensure that the round chambered was in-fact a “dummy” round. This oversight will be one of the key issues in the case.
A second issue has to do with Hannah Gutierrez Reed. She was the armorer on set. She told investigators that no live ammunition was present. We now know this to be incorrect. Nearly 500 bullets were confiscated by police—including several live rounds which were not supposed to be there. How these rounds escaped Ms. Read’s attention is a question that must be answered. Ms. Reed’s attorney mentioned this week that investigators should not rule out the possibility that someone intentionally sabotaged the set by inserting a live round into the gun Mr. Baldwin fired.
It is almost certain that Halyna Hutchins’ family will bring a wrongful death lawsuit. Brandon Lee’s mother pursued the same course of action after his untimely death in 1993. Individual defendants might include Alec Baldwin, Dave Halls, and Hannah Gutierrez-Reed. A more likely case would see Ms. Hutchins’s survivors sue the production company for wrongful death. In essence, it would be a negligence case against the film’s production company—specifically for negligent hiring or supervision. This cause of action, spelled out in Civil Jury Instruction 426, requires a plaintiff to prove:
1. The production company hired Mr. Halls and Ms. Gutierrez-Read;
2. Mr. Halls and Ms. Gutierrez-Read were unfit to perform the work for which they were hired;
3. The production company knew or should have known they were unfit and this unfitness or incompetence created a particular risk of harm to others;
4. This unfitness harmed the plaintiff; and
5. The production company’s negligent in hiring/supervising Mr. Halls and Ms. Gutierrez-Read was a substantial factor in causing the plaintiff’s harm.
A negligent supervision claim depends, in part, on a showing that the risk of harm was reasonably foreseeable. Here, CNN reported that Dave Halls previously was responsible for a firearms mishap on a different set. This could support the argument that the film’s production company knew or should have known that Mr. Halls was unfit to be the individual on this set declaring the gun to be safe. It was this representation Mr. Baldwin relied upon when he pulled the trigger.
Here is what we know about Hannah Gutierrez Reed: She’s 24-years-old and only recently attained the status of on-set armorer. In one interview, she exclaimed that she was scared to be the one responsible for determining whether bullets loaded into a firearms were real or fake. The Wrap reported that actor Nicholas Cage stormed off a previous set after Ms. Read accidentally discharged a firearm near him. Other reports allege that she displayed poor firearms safety in the past. If true, these facts could be damaging to the production company. They could support the argument that the company negligently hired or retained both Dave Halls and Hannah Gutierrez-Reed.
Will Alec Baldwin face criminal charges? The answer is uncertain. Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said she has not determined whether charges are warranted. Time will answer all of these important questions.
The tragic death of Halyna Hutchins occurred in New Mexico, and that state’s tort and criminal laws should ultimately apply. The above discussion uses California law by analogy to help try and answer the questions we all have. But it’s fair to say that live ammunition should not have been on the set, and the Colt revolver should have been double-checked to ensure that it was in fact a cold gun. Production companies must do better to protect all individuals on a film set so that a tragedy like the one that happened to Halyna Hutchins never occurs again.
