Halyna Hutchins’ Family in Ukraine Create New Tragic Layer to ‘Rust’ Shooting Death

On the heels of Halyna Hutchins’ family filing their wrongful death lawsuit against Alec Baldwin and others they find responsible for the accidental shooting death of the cinematographer while filming the western movie Rust in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Now, the family is reeling from another tragedy. As unrest continues in Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion of the country, Hutchins’ husband Matthew says her family is trapped there. He revealed the news on Twitter, noting that Ukraine is his late wife’s family’s hometown.

“Ukrainian refugees need humanitarian corridors,” Matthew tweeted earlier this month, per People Magazine. “Halyna’s family is trapped in Kyiv because of the danger of travel. Her mother continues to work in the hospital where she has been a nurse for over a decade because her country needs her, but also because they cannot leave safely.” In separate tweets, Matthew spoke about the need for a “no fly zone” in Ukraine. He asked for his followers to get involved and to “support refugees and the territorial defense force with aid and any intervention possible to protect the Ukrainian citizens and their independence.”

The Tweets must have captured the right people’s attention. A rep for Matthew told Entertainment Tonight shortly after his Tweets went viral that there’s been a positive update. “Halyna’s sister and 3-year-old niece have just made it to the Romanian border, attempting to get evacuated,” his rep said.

In the meantime, Matthew is still fighting the Rust battle. Baldwin has tried to disassociate himself from the lawsuit altogether, claiming he did not pull the trigger with the real bullet and has said he doesn’t know how a live round made it on the set. Matthew has spoken out in his disgust over Baldwin’s stance.

“I was just so angry to see him talk about her death so publicly, in such a detailed way and then to not accept any responsibility after having just described killing her,” Matthew said in an interview with the Today show. “The idea that the person holding the gun causing it to discharge is not responsible, is absurd to me. But 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.”