Gloria Allred Takes Rust Case, Blasts Alec Baldwin As Playing 'Russian Roulette' With Prop Gun

As if the Rust fallout wasn’t already going to be a high-profile legal battle, now Gloria Allred is involved.

Last month, famed feminist lawyer Allred announced she would be representing Mamie Mitchell, the script supervisor who called 9-1-1 on the day of the accidental shooting that injured director Joel Souza and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. In a statement to Fox News, the attorney promised that they were “conducting our own investigation of what happened,” and even revealed that Mitchell had been “standing very close to” the two victims at the time of the shooting.

On Wednesday, the attorney officially filed a suit on behalf of her client seeking damages for assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and deliberate infliction of harm. The suit names several groups and individuals as defendants, including Rust’s production company, armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, first assistant director David Halls, prop master Sarah Zachary, and producer and star Alec Baldwin, who fired the fatal shot.

The filing, obtained by Deadline, condemned the 30 Rock star’s actions:

“Alec Baldwin intentionally, without just cause or excuse, cocked and fired the loaded gun even though the upcoming scene to be filmed did not call for the cocking and firing of the firearm. Mr. Baldwin chose to play Russian Roulette with a loaded gun without checking it and without having the armorer do so.”

Elsewhere, it continued:

“Alec Baldwin should have assumed that the gun in question was loaded unless and until it was demonstrated to him or checked by him that it was not loaded. He had no right to rely upon some alleged statement by the Assistant Director that it was a ‘cold gun.’ Mr. Baldwin cannot hide behind the Assistant Director to attempt to excuse the fact that he did not check the gun himself.”

Phew. That’s a pretty damning assessment of the actor.

In a press conference to announce the suit, Mitchell tearfully said that the “violent tragedy has taken away the joy in [her] life.” She shared:

“I ran out and called 9-1-1 and said ‘Bring everybody, send everybody.’ This woman is gone at the beginning of her career. She was an extraordinary, rare, very rare woman. … I will never forget what happened on the set of Rust that day. I relive the shooting and the sound of the explosion from the gun over and over again.”

Allred took the opportunity to slam Baldwin and the other Rust producers as “reckless.” She claimed:

“In that scene, there was no script that called for him to discharge a gun. That is very important. So why the gun was discharged, the facts will have to fully come out.”

She also added:

“Days before the shooting there were warning signs that there were dangerous conditions related to guns on the set. A camera operator had reported two gun discharges during a rehearsal in a cabin. ‘This is super unsafe,’ the camera operator wrote in a text message to the production manager.”

Mitchell is not the first to file a suit regarding the Rust tragedy, and she probably won’t be the last. We’re not sure exactly what justice will look like in this incredibly complicated case, but we hope that it’s served nonetheless.

[Image via Ivan Nikolov/WENN/Avalon]