The chief electrician on the New Mexico set of the movie Rust, where on Thursday actor Alec Baldwin shot a prop gun that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, blamed the armorer, producers, and an atmosphere of “negligence and unprofessionalism” for the tragedy.
Serge Svetnoy, the gaffer for Rust, wrote in a long Facebook post on Sunday that he was a friend of Hutchins and that inexperience in the weapons department led to her death.
CREW MEMBER: ALEC BALDWIN ‘CAREFUL’ WITH GUNS BEFORE FATAL SHOOTING
“I was standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Halyna during this fatal shot that took her life and injured the director Joel Souza,” Svetnoy wrote. “I was holding her in my arms while she was dying. Her blood was on my hands.”
“It’s the fault of negligence and unprofessionalism,” he continued. “The negligence from the person who was supposed to check the weapon on the site did not do this; the person who had to announce that the loaded gun was on the site did not do this; the person who should have checked this weapon before bringing it to set did not do this. And the DEATH OF THE HUMAN IS THE RESULT!”
Svetnoy blamed 24-year-old Hannah Gutierrez Reed, the head armorer, though he did not name her.
“I’m sure that we had the professionals in every department, but one — the department that was responsible for the weapons,” he wrote. “There is no way a twenty-four-year-old woman can be a professional with armory.”
According to his post, the producers didn’t hire an armorer with proper experience as a cost-saving measure.
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“To save a dime sometimes, you hire people who are not fully qualified for the complicated and dangerous job, and you risk the lives of the other people who are close and your lives as well,” he said. “I understand that you always fight for the budget, but you cannot allow this to happen.”
Rust was only Reed’s second head armorer job. Last month, she said her favorite part about the job was “showing people who are normally kind of freaked by guns how safe they can be.”
Law enforcement is investigating the shooting, which also injured director Joel Souza, and no charges have been made as of Monday evening.
In the hours before Thursday’s fatal shooting, members of the camera crew left the set in protest against the safety of the production and poor working conditions for the film in which Baldwin is credited as an actor and producer. Crew members also claimed there were previous misfires of prop guns on the New Mexico set.
A search warrant affidavit said the assistant director handed the prop gun to Baldwin and shouted, “Cold gun.” That’s when Baldwin fired the gun.
“There are no words to convey my shock and sadness regarding the tragic accident that took the life of Halyna Hutchins, a wife, mother and deeply admired colleague of ours,” Baldwin tweeted on Friday. “I’m fully cooperating with the police investigation to address how this tragedy occurred and I am in touch with her husband, offering my support to him and his family. My heart is broken for her husband, their son, and all who knew and loved Halyna.”
