Halyna Hutchins’ husband speaks out about ‘Rust’ shooting

By Chloe Melas and Lucy Kafanov

Matthew Hutchins, the widower of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, told NBC’s “Today” show that he believes Alec Baldwin and “industry standards that were not practiced” are responsible for the shooting death of his late wife on the set of the film “Rust.”

Halyna Hutchins died in October after Baldwin discharged a prop gun during a rehearsal on the New Mexico film set. She was 42.

NBC released excerpts of the interview with Matthew Hutchins on Wednesday, with the full interview scheduled to release Thursday.

“The idea that the person holding the gun and causing it to discharge is not responsible is absurd to me,” Hutchins told NBC. “Gun safety was not the only problem on that set. There were a number of industry standards that were not practiced and there’s multiple responsible parties.”

As CNN previously reported, the Hutchins family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Baldwin, the film’s production companies, its producers and other key members of the crew.

“We continue to cooperate with the authorities to determine how live ammunition arrived on the ‘Rust’ set in the first place. Any claim that Alec was reckless is entirely false,” Aaron Dyer, attorney for Baldwin and other producers of “Rust,” said in a statement to CNN at the time of the filing. “He, Halyna and the rest of the crew relied on the statement by the two professionals responsible for checking the gun that it was a ‘cold gun’ — meaning there is no possibility of a discharge, blank or otherwise,”

Dyer, and production representatives have not responded to CNN’s request for comment on Hutchins’ interview with NBC.

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