The armorer for Rust is not letting Alec Baldwin off the hook for last year’s tragic on-set shooting in New Mexico that killed one member of the Western film’s staff and injured another.
Responding to Baldwin’s recent court filing in which he tried to evade liability, armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed insisted he violated gun safety protocols.
ALEC BALDWIN ATTEMPTS TO DISTANCE HIMSELF FROM BLAME FOR RUST SHOOTING: FILING
“Mr. Baldwin knew that he could never point a firearm at crew members under any circumstances and had a duty of safety to his fellow crew members,” Gutierrez Reed’s representatives said in a statement, per CNN. “Yet he did point the gun at Halyna before the fatal incident against all rules and common sense.”
Baldwin claims cinematographer Halyna Hutchins told him to cock a revolver as they rehearsed a sequence in the movie, according to his arbitration demand filed last Friday that insisted Baldwin was not responsible for Hutchins’s death. Her family included him in a wrongful death lawsuit filed against him last month in the First Judicial District Court of Santa Fe, seeking undetermined damages.
The actor insists he never pulled the trigger and instead released the hammer of the gun, which set off the shot that killed Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza last October. But Gutierrez Reed contends this broke basic gun safety protocols and that she was not contacted before the church scene rehearsal.
“[Baldwin and others on set] had a duty and responsibility to call Hannah in for inspection of the gun and safety instruction before any gun scene was conducted,” her statement said, CNN reported. “Hannah was not called into the Church before the impromptu gun scene rehearsal and she should have been.”
As the armorer, Gutierrez Reed, 24, has been subject to scrutiny over how a live round made its way into a set prop gun. In his recent court filing, Baldwin directed some blame at Gutierrez Reed for the live round being in the gun. He claimed he went through a training session with Gutierrez Reed and was told she was responsible for checking the gun.
“Reed did not instruct Baldwin to check the gun himself. In fact, she told Baldwin that it was her job to check the gun — not his. Similarly, Baldwin believed, based on prior gun safety training he received on movie sets, that actors should not unilaterally check guns,” the filing read.
Gutierrez Reed’s representatives rejected Baldwin’s claim, arguing she faced “constant resistance” from Baldwin during her time on Rust and asserted that Baldwin rejected additional gun safety training.
“Hannah emphasized the importance of training Mr. Baldwin in the cross draw, which is dangerous,” the statement said. “He never accepted the offer and Hannah was not able to conduct that training as well as other training she wanted to do, because of budgeting and being overruled by production.”
Gutierrez Reed is also suing the ammunition supplier for creating “dangerous conditions” on set, seeking compensatory damages.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Baldwin’s court filing has also drawn fire from Hutchins’s family. The court filing included text message exchanges between Baldwin and Hutchins’s family members in which he extended his condolences and offered “comfort and support.” Attorneys for the Hutchins family denounced him for including the text messages in his court filing.
“Baldwin’s disclosure of personal texts with Matt Hutchins is irrelevant to his demand for arbitration and fails to demonstrate anything other than Hutchins’ dignity in his engagement with Baldwin,” the family statement said. “It is shameful that Baldwin claims Hutchins’ actions in filing a wrongful death lawsuit derailed the completion of ‘Rust.’ The only action that ended the film’s production was Baldwin’s killing of Halyna Hutchins.”
