Gunsmith from Alec Baldwin's shoot blames the producers for insecurity on the set
A week after the fatal accident, Hannah Gutierrez Reed's lawyers sent a letter to the media in which they affirmed that the young woman "has no idea" of the origin of the authentic bullets that the investigators have located in the studio where it was filmed. the "western" "Rust".
Hannah Gutierrez Reed, the gunsmith hired for the shoot in which Alec Baldwin accidentally killed Halyna Hutchins, blamed the film's producers for not heeding her safety advice.
A week after the fatal accident, the gunsmith's lawyers sent a letter to the media in which they affirmed that Gutierrez Reed "has no idea" of the origin of the authentic bullets that the investigators have located in the study where they were found. I was filming the "western" "Rust".
"Safety was Hannah's number one priority ... This shoot would never have been compromised if live ammunition had not been introduced. Hannah has no idea where the bullets came from," said her attorneys, Jason Bowles and Robert Gorence. .
According to the letter, the 24-year-old armourer is "devastated and completely beside herself" by the event.
Gutierrez Reed is a person of special interest in the investigation being carried out by the Santa Fe Sheriff's Office (New Mexico, USA), since he is one of the two people who handled the weapon before it came to hand. by Baldwin.
The other, assistant director Dave Halls, admitted Wednesday that he did not properly check the pistol before handing it to the actor during rehearsal for a scene where he was supposed to shoot on camera.
However, Gutierrez Reed defended her work and recalled that the film's producers ignored her requests for the rest of the team to carry out training sessions.
"She fought to have days of training to hold weapons and to have adequate time to prepare for the shots, but they were ultimately rejected by the producers," the statement said.
"The entire set was made unsafe by various factors, including a lack of security measures. No fault on Hannah," she added.
In the last hours, some media have speculated that the team practiced shooting with real bullets during breaks from filming, something for which Gutierrez Reed is not responsible.
"Hannah and the props manager had control of the weapons and they never saw anyone shoot real bullets with those pistols, they would never have allowed it," the letter justified.
The pistol that Baldwin fired, a Colt 45 revolver, was stored with two other weapons, one modified so he could not fire live ammunition and one made of plastic.
Santa Fe Sheriff Adan Mendoza told a news conference Wednesday that he had found about 500 rounds of ammunition that he described as a mix of "blank cartridges, dummy bullets" and what he "suspected" might be "bullets. true ".
Faced with questions from the press about the possible legal responsibility of Baldwin, who in addition to being the protagonist of the film is one of the producers, the sheriff stressed that "nothing is ruled out."
