Fatal accident while shooting “Rust”: How did live ammunition get onto the film set?

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the gunsmith in charge on the set of “Rust”, first commented on the incident in which the actor Alec Baldwin (63) recently shot the 42-year-old cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. “Safety is Hannah’s top priority on the set,” said a statement by Gutierrez-Reed’s lawyers, including and.

Gutierrez-Reed was “devastated”. You have “no idea where the live ammunition came from,” it said. An incident like this would never have happened on the film set had it not been for live ammunition.

An unsafe film set?

According to the lawyers, the weapons are said to have been locked away overnight and during lunch breaks. Gutierrez-Reed had another job on the set, “which made it extremely difficult to concentrate on her job as an armorer.” She allegedly campaigned for training, days to maintain the prop weapons and more preparation time before using the weapons, which she was not granted. The entire set had become “unsafe due to several factors”, including because there were no meetings related to security.

The police had previously announced that Hutchins had been hit by a sharp bullet. More live ammunition bullets may also have been found on the set. While filming, a shot had apparently been accidentally fired when Baldwin was rehearsing the gun he was handed.

Director Joel Souza (48) was also injured in the incident, but was discharged from the hospital shortly afterwards. Baldwin is said not to have known that the gun in his hand was loaded with live ammunition. The assistant director Dave Halls had handed it to the actor and explained that it was a “cold gun” without live ammunition. Halls later stated to the police that he had not checked the gun closely enough.