Alec Baldwin continues to find himself embroiled in legal entanglements stemming from the October 2021 fatal shooting of movie producer Halayna Hutchins. Hutchins was shot and killed by a single bullet fired by Baldwin while on the set of the film “Rust.”
Fox News reported that the Hutchins family had brought on renowned lawyer Gloria Allred to pursue a civil suit. The family has said that “to leave this unpunished is unallowable.”
Allred’s filing addresses a lengthy list of reasons as to why the family needs closure. Fox wrote:
Attorney Gloria Allred filed a lawsuit alleging battery, loss of consortium, infliction of emotional distress and more on behalf of Hutchins’ mother, sister and father, Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Allred further claimed that Hutchins was financially responsible for her family and had plans to bring them with her to live in America.
Compounding the family’s frustrations is the fact that Baldwin has allegedly never reached out to the family and apologized. No doubt, his legal team as likely advised against such a move – or at least, we can hope that’s the reason; silence for silence’s sake would be a disgusting display of inhuman detachment – although it remains confusing why Baldwin went on national television after the shooting occurred. He most famously sat down for an interview with George Stephanopolous and abdicated himself from any personal responsibility.
In a translated video statement which was given in her family’s native Russian language, the late Halayna Hitchen’s mother, father, sister, and son issued a statement for the first time. They said, in part:
“We are the sister and the mother of Halyna Hutchins. To lose my sister, at least personally for me, was a horrible experience,” Hutchins’ sister Svetlana Zemko said. “And it is one of the biggest losses of my life. And even more devastating is to see the utter suffering of our parents and how their health has sharply declined. “It is for this reason that I would like those who are at fault, for somebody to carry that responsibility. And not just someone, but that very someone who is truly responsible for this. I believe to let this go and to leave this unpunished is unallowable.”
An interesting legal strategy appears to be at play as well. One PR expert, Eric Schiffer, spoke to Fox News Digital and explained that the timing of the civil suit is likely no accident. As Schiffer explained, the pending criminal case against Baldwin has implications on the civil one.
“[This lawsuit] impacts him greatly because part of his strategy in resolving the criminal case revolves around whether or not he is seen as being culpable,” Schiffer said. “So, if he pleads guilty, that could hurt him on the civil side.”
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Previously, Hutchins’ surviving husband had already settled a wrongful death suit, which was available only to immediate kin. That civil lawsuit was settled pending final court approval.
Public opinion against Baldwin is decidedly not in his favor. His outspoken politics, particularly his vehement anti-2A stance, doesn’t exactly work in his favor when he’s implicated in a shooting death.
As for his guilt, a trial and jury of his peers will ultimately decide his fate. Working in his favor is the fact that several people handled the firearm used in the shooting, which was supposed to include a blank and for some unfathomable reason had a live round in it, but at the same time Baldwin wasn’t just an actor on the film. He was a producer. It’s a complicated legal matter that continues to develop.