The chief electrician on the film Rust is suing Alec Baldwin and members of the crew and production team, claiming he is suffering “severe emotional distress” following the death of Halyna Hutchins.
Serge Svetnoy was inside the church set when Hutchins was shot by Baldwin, standing just feet from the actor. He described being hit with bullet fragments before cradling the dying cinematographer, whom he had known for several years, for more than 20 minutes before an ambulance arrived.
“What a terrible tragedy and injustice when a person loses her life on a film set while making art,” Svetnoy said.
It is the first lawsuit filed over the incident on 21 October which resulted in the death of 42-year-old Hutchins. It also contains the fresh allegation that the scene which was being rehearsed did not actually require Baldwin to pull the trigger.
“I did not expect it,” Svetnoy told Sky News, “nobody expected it.”
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In the court documents, Svetnoy, who – like Hutchins – is originally from Ukraine – added: “This duty called for Defendant Baldwin to double-check the Colt Revolver upon being handled to ensure that it did not contain live ammunition.”
Svetnoy went on to claim that if Baldwin knew the gun was loaded with a real bullet, he had another duty to “refrain from pointing it at anyone”.
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The 63-year-old has made what is called a general-negligence complaint which names the producers including Baldwin, armourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed and others.
“When you have millionaire and multimillionaire producers putting their money and their profits before safety and human life, that must be punished, that must be stopped,” his lawyer Gary Dordick said, adding that Svetnoy was seeking general and punitive damages.
“Alec Baldwin was sued for punitive damages because when a gun, a real gun, was given to him on the set, he assumed it was safe,” Dordick added. “He took a gun, loaded with a bullet, pointed it at human being and pulled the trigger and shot the bullet that killed people.”
The lawsuit comes just a week after a former crew member on the film Rust said he “never felt as close to death” on a set as he did in the days before Halyna Hutchins was killed.
Lane Luper was the lead camera operator for the production but resigned the day before the fatal shooting, citing concerns over gun safety and the welfare of crew.
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‘I’ve never felt more unsafe on set’ – ex-Rust camera chief
Lawyers for Hannah Gutierrez-Reed who, as the armourer, was in charge of guns on set have doubled down on the claim that sabotage was the reason for live ammunition being in the gun handed to Alec Baldwin.
“We eagerly await the FBI’s investigation of all the facts including the live rounds themselves, how they ended up in the ‘dummies box’ and who put them there,” they said in a statement. “We are convinced that this was sabotage and Hannah is being framed. We believe that the scene was tampered with as well before the police arrived.”
But Gary Dordick, representing Mr Svetnoy said the idea of sabotage was “totally unbelievable” to him. “What they’re really saying is that it was murder,” he told Sky News, “that they put a bullet in a gun knowing it was going to be fired at someone. That seems specious, that seems suspect.”
In a statement, the producers of Rust, including Alec Baldwin, said: “The safety of our cast and crew is the top priority of Rust Productions and everyone associated with the company.
“Though we were not made aware of any official complaints concerning weapon or prop safety on set, we will be conducting an internal review of our procedures while production is shut down.
“We will continue to cooperate with the Santa Fe authorities in their investigation and offer mental health services to the cast and crew during this tragic time.”
Students, charged and released with a date in court, are here now to collect their belongings. They’re missing bags, belts, shoes, all lost in the chaos of the night before.
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From the very heart of the protest encampment, our cameras had captured the chaos.
Officers moving in. Tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse. Stun grenades to disorientate.
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They were scenes which have stirred an already fevered debate about Israel and Gaza, yes, but about much more too. About America, about policing, and about free speech too.
President Biden said yesterday: “Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduations – none of this is a peaceful protest.”
‘Wrong’ say the protesters. Their movement, they say, is the very essence of protest; of civil disobedience which is threaded through US college campus history.
They reject any notion that they are threatening or violent. Yet the deeply divisive history of the Israel-Palestine conflict ensures that the beholder will so often be offended by the actions of the other side.
It was the students perceived antisemitism through their pro-Palestinian slogans which had drawn a group of pro-Israel protesters to the encampment earlier in the week.
The chaos of that night was reflected in a statement by the university’s student radio station which has been covering every twist.
“Counter protestors used bear mace, professional-grade fireworks and clubs to brutalize hundreds of our peers, UCLA turned a blind eye. Police were not called until hours into the onslaught and stood aside for over an hour as counter-protestors enacted racial, physical and chemical violence,” the statement from the UCLA Radio Managerial team said.
Watching the clear-up after the nighttime police sweep of the protesters I spotted two people embracing. A young man and an older woman.
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Professor recalls violent arrest at protest
It turned out to be a thread of history. One was a student who’d been arrested the night before.
The other was a student from a past time. Diane Salinger had been at New York’s Columbia University in 1968, at protests which now form a key chapter in American history.
“I’m so proud of these people here. I’m so proud,” she told me.
“You know the civil unrest of the students back in ’68 and it continued for several years, it actually changed the course of the Vietnam War and hopefully this is going to do the same thing.”
But then, back at the police station, a conversation that hints at the wider challenges for America.
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‘Tom’ is a protester who wanted to remain anonymous – a graduate who feels politically deserted in his own country. For him, no government is better than any on offer.
“The problem with our system is that we can’t rely on the police, we can’t rely on the military to keep us safe.
“When we need to make our voices heard, we need to make them heard, and the only way to do that without being repressed is by keeping each other safe and I think that last night and the last few months have really exemplified that,” he told me.
These protests are about more than Gaza. They are aligning a spectrum of dissent.
A scuba dive boat captain has been jailed for four years for criminal negligence over a fire that killed 34 people.
Captain Jerry Boylan was also sentenced to three years supervised release by a federal judge in Los Angeles, California.
The blaze on the vessel named Conception in September 2019 was the deadliest maritime disaster in recent American history.
Boylan was found guilty of one count of misconduct or neglect of ship officer last year.
The charge is a pre-Civil War statute, known colloquially as seaman’s manslaughter, and was designed to hold steamboat captains and crew responsible for maritime disasters.
In a sentencing memo, lawyers for Boylan – who is appealing – wrote: “While the loss of life here is staggering, there can be no dispute that Mr Boylan did not intend for anyone to die.
“Indeed, Mr Boylan lives with significant grief, remorse, and trauma as a result of the deaths of his passengers and crew.”
The Conception was anchored off Santa Cruz Island, 25 miles south of Santa Barbara, when it caught fire before dawn on the final day of a three-day voyage, sinking less than 30 metres from the shore.
Thirty-three passengers and a crew member died, trapped below deck.
Ms Wilson bought her most recent ticket at Family Food Mart in the US town of Mansfield and the shop will receive a $10,000 (£7,900) bonus for its sale of the ticket, according to the Massachusetts State Lottery.
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She bought her first $1m winning ticket at Dubs’s Discount Liquors in the same town.