The parents and sister of Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer killed when a prop gun wielded by Alec Baldwin discharged on the “Rust” movie set in New Mexico in 2021, have dropped their lawsuit against multiple defendants, including the actor.
Hutchins' mother, Olga Solovey; father, Anatolii Androsovych; and younger sister, Svetlana Zemko, sued in February 2023 in Los Angeles Superior Court. All three are Ukrainian citizens, living near Kiev. The complaint was brought just months after a separate legal action filed by Hutchins' husband, Matthew Hutchins, was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount, with a stipulation that the filming of “Rust” would continue with the widower serving as a producer.
The family's lawyers filed court papers on Monday asking that the entire complaint be dismissed “without prejudice,'' meaning it can be refiled later. No explanation was given for the decision.
Get top local stories in San Diego delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC San Diego's News Headlines newsletter.
The 66-year-old Baldwin has repeatedly denied culpability in Hutchins' death, which occurred Oct. 21, 2021, inside a church building on the Western set of “Rust” outside Santa Fe. Baldwin was wielding a prop gun, helping set up camera angles for an upcoming scene, when the weapon discharged, killing Hutchins, 42, and wounding director Joel Souza, now 50.
The plaintiffs' attorneys maintain in their court papers that the “low-budget mold'' of the film included hiring inexperienced crew members to manage the weapons that were to be used, noting that armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was 24 years old at the time and had worked as an armorist on only one previous film.
Gutierrez-Reed, now 27, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in March and sentenced the next month to 16 months in prison.
Baldwin has insisted that he was told the gun wasn't loaded when it was handed to him. He also contends that while he pulled back the hammer of the weapon, he never pulled the trigger. The actor was initially charged along with Gutierrez-Reed before the special prosecutors who took over the case dismissed his charges. Months later, a grand jury indicted him on involuntary manslaughter.
