The family of Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer who was killed while rehearsing a scene for the film "Rust" when Alec Baldwin discharged a firearm he was told was unloaded, has retained counsel.
Los Angeles-based personal injury law firm Panish, Shea, Boyle, Ravipudi LLP has been hired by the family, per a statement obtained by Fox News.
"Respecting Mr. Hutchins request for privacy as the family grieves the loss of Halyna Hutchins, the firm will not be making any statements at this time," the message read.
According to the firm's website, they practice law related to "personal injury, wrongful death litigation and business litigation."
Terese Davis, costume designer for the movie "Rust," has spoken out against the claims of poor working conditions on the movie.
"Movie sets for me are like families, they are each beautiful experiences and 'Rust' was a particularly tight set," she told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. "[Cinematographer] Halyna [Hutchins] was at the center of our family, the brightest light and to have 1 or 2 people destroy her beauty with ugly, false noise is compounding the hurt and making the grieving process that much harder."
The designer added: "This is a time for people to come together to comfort one another."
On Tuesday, "Rust" star Alec Baldwin shared a lengthy comment from Davis who defended the movie's producers and called rumors of a poor work environment on the movie "bulls--t."
She added that she plans to advocate for better gun safety on movie sets, going so far as to say she'd fight to keep live guns off of movie sets altogether.
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In response to an inquiry from Fox News Digital for the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees’ written rules about gun safety on movie sets, the union provided guidelines from the Contract Services Administration Trust Fund (CSATF).
Per those documents, it becomes increasingly clear that violations of these industry standards took place on the set of "Rust" prior to the death of Halyna Hutchins.
In all caps with bold, underlined letters, the first line reads, "BLANKS CAN KILL. TREAT ALL FIREARMS AS THOUGH THEY ARE LOADED. ‘LIVE AMMUNITION’ IS NEVER TO BE USED NOR BROUGHT ONTO ANY STUDIO LOT OR STAGE."
Furthermore, guns should never be pointed at anyone "unless absolutely necessary to do so on camera," according to the CSATF guidance.
"Refrain from pointing a firearm at anyone, including yourself," the protocols read, and "NEVER place your finger on the trigger until you’re ready to shoot."
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{{#rendered}}As armorer Hanna Gutierrez Reed becomes the focus of the investigation into the the accidental death of Halyna Hutchins on the Alec Baldwin film "Rust," experts in the industry are still flummoxed by the safety lapse.
Phelim McAleer, an independent filmmaker who has worked with on-set armorers before, told Fox News that there are strict union guidelines for handling firearms that don’t always get followed closely.
A so-called live round on a movie set is usually defined as "any shot that has combustion and that includes a blank, so every set that fires a blank fires a ‘live’ round," he told Fox News Digital from Serbia, where he is filming a forthcoming Hunter Biden biopic.
The round police recovered from the shoulder of director Joel Souza after it passed through Hutchins' midsection was not a blank but an actual live round.
"Bullets should not be on set – or in firearms that will later be fired, because they can get jammed in the barrel and pushed out by a blank," McAleer said.
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Shannon Lee and Cathy Scorsese spoke out separately about the death of Halyna Hutchins and called for reform in the film industry as a result.
Shannon Lee, the daughter of Bruce Lee and brother to Brandon Lee, who died in a similar shooting incident on the set of “The Crow” told AFP that she would like to see mandatory gun safety training enacted so that actors like Baldwin would be able to check a firearm themselves rather than rely on crew to inform them whether a gun is safe to handle.
Meanwhile, Scorsese, who worked with Baldwin on “The Departed” noted to Insider that it seems the crew, in this case, “screwed up pretty bad.” She also stated that she knows Baldwin to be a good person who is likely very broken up about this incident.
“I worked with Alec Baldwin on the set of ‘The Departed’ and ‘The Aviator.’ Alec is a good human being, and it’s written all over his face how distraught he is. It’s awful, but in addition to his role as an actor, he’s also wearing the producer hat in this case,” she said.
The daughter of famed director Martin Scorsese added: “The number of violations that took place to result in a death and an injury like this is beyond our comprehension.”
Speaking on the “Today” show Wednesday, armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed’s attorneys noted that they’re considering the possibility that the set was sabotaged.
Jason Bowles and Robert Gorence claim that the bullets their client loaded into the gun on the day of the shooting were taken from a box that was only supposed to contain dummy rounds that were incapable of firing. However, because the ammunition was left unattended from roughly 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. that day, they believe the opportunity was there for a disgruntled crew member to insert a live round into the box.
“We know a couple facts. We know there was a live round in a box of dummy rounds that shouldn’t have been there. At least one round. We have people who walked off set because they were disgruntled. We have a timeline of approximately 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. that day in which the firearms at that time were unattended,” Bowles said. “So there was opportunity to tamper with this scene and yes, we’re looking at that possibility.”
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{{#rendered}}Alec Baldwin is sending a message about the claims of poor working conditions on the set of the movie "Rust."
Questions of safety on the set of the film have risen since the 63-year-old actor discharged a firearm that he was told was "cold," or unloaded, ultimately resulting in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
While some have spoken out to suggest that working conditions were poor, Baldwin shared a message from a reported crew member on the film, backing up claims that working conditions were adequate.
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