The weapons officer on the western film set where a film photographer was shot, says she did not know that there was sharp ammunition in the production area.
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Instead, gun attorney Hannah Reed Gutierrez’s lawyers are now targeting the film’s producers, who they believe are responsible for the film set in Santa Fe, New Mexico, having poor work practices, according to AP.
Reed Gutierrez was so-called armor on the film set for the film “Rust” where film photographer Halyna Hutchins (42) was killed and the director was seriously injured on October 21. It was Hollywood star Alec Baldwin who fired the weapon that killed Hutchins.
“This would never have happened if there had not been sharp ammunition on the film set,” lawyers Jason Bowles and Robert Gorence said in a statement by e-mail on Friday.
Gutierrez Reed (24) has only worked on one major film production before this. She has not yet commented on the matter.
– Would not allow it
Lawyers claim Reed Gutierrez has no idea where the sharp ammunition comes from.
– Hannah and the person in charge of the props took control of the weapons and she never saw anyone shoot with sharp shots with these weapons, and she also would not have allowed it, the lawyers say.
On a press conference on Wednesday this week Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said there was a degree of carelessness in how weapons were handled on the “Rust” set.
Investigators are believed to have found 500 cartridges, a mixture of dummy ammunition and what appeared to be sharp shots, according to the Associated Press.
There must have been three people involved in the deadly weapon. In addition to Baldwin, police have identified two other people who had contact with the weapon: Reed Gutierrez and recording manager David Halls.
Halls was the one who gave Baldwin the weapon and he has told police investigators that he did not check the weapon properly in this case. But he is said to have shouted “cold gun”, which indicates that the weapon is safe to use, according to Reuters.
– Was run over
Gutierrez Reed’s lawyers said she was “completely devastated and completely out of her mind” after Hutchins’ death. They more than suggest that the film’s producers took shortcuts at the expense of security.
The lawyers said Gutierrez Reed had been hired to fill two positions on the film set, which should have made it “extremely difficult” to focus on his job as a weapons officer.
“She fought for training, for days to maintain weapons and plenty of time to prepare weapons for firing, but she was overwhelmed by the film’s production staff. The entire film set was insecure, due to various factors, including the absence of security letters. This was not Hannah’s fault, “they say in the statement.
A spokesman for the film’s producers has not yet responded to Gutierrez Reed’s lawyers’ claims. They have previously stated that they cooperates with police investigators in the case.
Several have recently come forward with criticism of the safety of the set.
Neal W. Zoromski, who has worked for many years as a prop, recently told Los Angeles Times that he refused to work on the “Rust” set because manufacturers insisted that only one person should have the jobs as assistant props and weapons manager. Zoromski tells the newspaper that these jobs are too big to combine. He described the film production as “a foretold disaster”
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