On October 21, Alec Baldwin, the lead actor of Rust, accidentally shot cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who succumbed to a stomach wound and director Joel Souza who suffered a shoulder wound and has been discharged from hospital, since. Assistant director Dave Halls shouted “cold gun”, which meant that the weapon was safe, while handing an antique Colt revolver to Baldwin. Unfortunately, the gun had live ammo inside, instead of a blank and the same bullet shot both of them, Halyna fatally while Souza has recovered, since.
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed the chief armorer was in-charge of loading the guns. One of her lawyer’s Jason Bowles told the Today Show that their client had loaded the Colt that was used in the shooting with a box of ammo that was labeled “dummy” ammo and she found out later, after the shooting, that the box had live ammo.
He added that they were assuming that somebody put the live round in the box and that the person’s purpose for doing so was to sabotage the set. The lawyer said that there was “no other reason” that anyone would mix live rounds in with dummy rounds.
Gutierrez-Reed’s second attorney, Robert Gorence said that the antique gun was locked away and kept in a safe. However, the box of dummy ammunition was kept in a prop truck. The truck was was “completely unattended at all times” and this could have given a person both access as well as opportunity.”
Gorence also admitted that the gun was left unattended on a tray for a couple of hours before the afternoon shoot at the set near Santa Fe, in New Mexico. Gutierrez-Reed’s lawyers defended this action saying that their client was performing two roles and she left the gun on the tray to perform her second job as a props assistant.
Bowles said that Gutierrez-Reed has spun the chamber to show Halls the rounds inside but she had not inspected the gun to make sure that the rounds inside the chamber were not live ammunition.
Last week, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza mentioned that there was “some complacency” in the set of Rust. Investigators had reportedly found 500 rounds of ammo that included blanks, dummy rounds and suspected live ammo.
Source The Daily Mail
