American actor and filmmaker Alec Baldwin is facing another lawsuit. The actor is being sued for defamation by the family of a Marine killed in Afghanistan claiming Baldwin, 63, falsely accused members of the family of being present at the January 6 Capitol riots in Washington, D.C. The family is now demanding a jury trial..
According to the outlet People, Rylee McCollum, 20, was killed outside of Afghanistan's international airport in an August 26 bombing as U.S. military troops were processing evacuees to be flown out of the country following the Taliban takeover. Following McCollum's death, Baldwin found one of the Marine's sisters, Roice, 22, on Instagram and sent her a $5,000 donation to go to McCollum's widow, Jiennah Crayton, and their baby.
According to the complaint, earlier this month, Baldwin allegedly accused Roice of participating in the January 6 Capitol riots, calling her an "insurrectionist" and a "Jan. 6 rioter" in a private Instagram DM and reposting her photos of the demonstration to his Instagram account, telling Roice, "I reposted your photo. Good luck."
Alec Baldwin has since deleted the photos although Roice, her sister Cheyenne and Crayton say they have received harmful messages and death threats since Baldwin reposted. Neither Cheyenne nor Crayton were at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, according to the suit. On January 1, Roice shared a photo of herself at the Capitol on Instagram, writing in the caption, "Throwback."
In the suit, she states she attended a protest at the Capitol on January 6 but that she did not participate in the riots that followed the demonstration and has been cleared after an interview with the FBI. The complaint further alleges that underneath the photo Baldwin commented, "Are you the same woman that I sent the $ to for your sister's husband who was killed during the Afghanistan exit." Since Baldwin shared Roice's image on Instagram, she, Cheyenne and Crayton say in the lawsuit that they have received "hostile, aggressive, hateful" messages on social media.
They call the actor's comments "false, outrageous, defamatory, irresponsible, vindictive" and allege that the backlash caused the three of them "severe emotional distress," according to the court documents.
This is the most recent lawsuit Alec Baldwin faces after being at the center of the shooting on the film set of Rust that took the life of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Baldwin, along with the film's other producers, has been sued by two members of the Rust crew in separate lawsuits. Last week, the actor turned over his cell phone to authorities as part of the ongoing investigation into the accidental shooting.
Also Read: Alec Baldwin refutes claims that he’s not helping Rust shooting investigation
