Rust Set Shooting: Assistant Director admits Gun was not checked

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Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer for the film Rust, says she checked the ammunition prior to Alec Baldwin being given the gun and “ensured they were not ‘hot’ rounds.” But Assistant Director David Halls, who was supposed to check her work, admitted that he didn’t check all her work.

Those were just two new tidbits in the latest search warrant in the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office’s investigation into last Thursday’s fatal shooting of the indie film’s director of photography, Halyna Hutchins, a shooting that also injured the director, Joel Souza. The affidavit reveals what Gutierrez-Reed told detectives about the gun, a Long Colt .45 caliber revolver, and the ammunition. It also includes statements from Halls about how the tragic event played out at Bonanza Creek Ranch.

The document obtained by Yahoo Entertainment states that Gutierrez-Reed “advised on the day of the incident, she checked the ‘dummies,'” referring to dummy rounds, which contain no gunpowder or primer cap and are used as stand-ins for real bullets in movies, “and ensured they were not ‘hot’ rounds.”

When the cast and crew broke for lunch, which was off-site, the firearms (three total: the one that shot Hutchins, a nonfunctioning .45 caliber revolver and a plastic nonfunctioning prop gun) were “secured inside a safe on a ‘prop truck.'” It was noted that only a few people had access to the safe’s combination.

Meanwhile, the ammunition was “left on a cart on the set” and “not secured.”

Gutierrez-Reed told detectives that after lunch, prop master Sarah Zachry pulled the firearms out of the safe and handed them to her. She said during the course of filming the movie that she handed the gun to Baldwin a “couple times” and also handed it to Halls. 

Gutierrez-Reed told authorities that no live ammo is ever kept on set.

In a previous affidavit, it was noted that Souza said three people typically handle guns on the set. Firearms would first be checked by the film’s armorer, in this case, Gutierrez-Reed, before being checked by the assistant director, Halls, who would then gave a firearm to an actor for their scene.

In the new affidavit, Halls told authorities, “I check the barrel for obstructions. Most of the time there’s no live fire. [Gutierrez-Reed] opens the hatch and spins the drum, and I say cold gun on set.” (Baldwin was told on this day that it was a “cold gun,” a previous warrant revealed.)

 

 

YahooNews/Hauwa Abu

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