Legal professionals for Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer on the set of the movie the place Alec Baldwin fatally shot a cinematographer final week as he rehearsed with a gun he was instructed had no reside ammunition, issued an announcement Friday defending her adherence to security protocols and saying that she didn’t know the way reside rounds wound up on the set in New Mexico.
“Hannah has no concept the place the reside rounds got here from,” Ms. Gutierrez-Reed’s attorneys, Jason Bowles and Robert Gorence, mentioned within the first public assertion on her behalf.
Of their assertion, they charged that the set of the movie, “Rust,” had been unsafe, and that Ms. Gutierrez-Reed, 24, had been employed to 2 positions on the movie, “which made it extraordinarily tough to concentrate on her job as an armorer.’’
“She fought for coaching, days to take care of weapons, and correct time to organize for gunfire however finally was overruled by manufacturing and her division,” it mentioned. “The entire manufacturing set grew to become unsafe as a consequence of numerous elements, together with lack of security conferences. This was not the fault of Hannah.”
Both method, the manufacturing set was awash in weapons and ammunition. Along with the weapons and ammunition that had been recovered in an earlier search, detectives discovered extra once they searched a white prop truck on the set, Detectives Alexandria Hancock and Marissa Poppell with the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Workplace mentioned in a court docket doc launched on Friday.
The detectives recovered 12 revolvers; one rifle; a bandolier (a belt often slung sash-style over the shoulder to carry ammunition); 4 cardboard bins with miscellaneous ammunition; a spent clean, and one “45 Colt spherical.”
Ms. Gutierrez-Reed — who additionally goes by Hannah Reed and Hannah Gutierrez — was comparatively inexperienced as a head armorer. In a latest podcast she famous that she had simply completed filming her first film as head armorer in a western known as “The Previous Manner,” starring Clint Howard and Nicolas Cage, that’s set for launch subsequent yr, saying, “I virtually didn’t take the job as a result of I wasn’t certain if I used to be prepared.” Ms. Gutierrez-Reed has additionally come beneath scrutiny for reviews of surprising gun discharges on the units of movies that she has labored on.
Her attorneys mentioned that they needed “to deal with some untruths which have been instructed to the media, which have falsely portrayed her and slandered her,” and mentioned that security was her “primary precedence on set.”
Whereas some information accounts have advised there may need been leisure taking pictures on the set, reviews law-enforcement officers known as “unconfirmed,” the attorneys mentioned of their assertion that the weapons getting used for the movie couldn’t have been used for such actions.
“Hannah and the prop grasp gained management over the weapons and he or she by no means witnessed anybody shoot reside rounds with these weapons and nor would she allow that,” the assertion mentioned. “They had been locked up each evening and at lunch and there’s no method a single one in every of them was unaccounted for or being shot by crew members.”
Within the week for the reason that taking pictures at Bonanza Creek Ranch, which killed the film’s director of pictures, Halyna Hutchins, and wounded its director, Joel Souza, Ms. Gutierrez-Reed and the movie’s assistant director, Dave Halls, have come beneath scrutiny, since they each dealt with the Colt .45 getting used within the movie earlier than it was handed to Mr. Baldwin.
The gun was declared “chilly,” which means it was not presupposed to include any reside ammunition, in keeping with court docket papers. However when it went off as Mr. Baldwin practiced drawing it, it fired an actual bullet, which struck and killed Ms. Hutchins and wounded Mr. Souza, Sheriff Adan Mendoza of Santa Fe County mentioned at a information convention Wednesday.
Three former crew members on “Rust” mentioned there have been at the very least two unintentional discharges on set on Oct. 16, days earlier than the deadly taking pictures.
Within the attorneys’ assertion, they mentioned that Ms. Gutierrez-Reed “has by no means had an unintentional discharge” throughout her profession. They advised that others had been liable for the 2 unintentional discharges on the “Rust” set: “The primary one on this set was the prop grasp and the second was a stunt man after Hannah knowledgeable him his gun was sizzling with blanks.”
“Hannah is devastated and utterly beside herself over the occasions which have transpired,” the assertion mentioned.
