Who Is 'Rust' Armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed?
New details about the Rust prop gun incident were revealed Wednesday, including details from an interview with Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer who was in charge of the weapons on the set of the film, conducted by detectives.
The incident saw Alec Baldwin, who stars in the movie, accidentally shoot the film's director of photography Halyna Hutchins, and its writer/director Joel Souza while using a prop gun on the set of the Western film last Thursday.
Hutchins was killed, while Souza was injured following the incident.
According to a search warrant affidavit filed Wednesday, David Halls, the first assistant director on the set, told investigators that he should have inspected the weapon for live rounds before handing it to Baldwin, Variety reported.
The affidavit said: "David [Halls] advised when Hannah [Gutierrez-Reed] showed him the firearm before continuing rehearsal, he could only remember seeing three rounds.
"He advised he should have checked all of them, but didn't, and couldn't recall if she spun the drum," the affidavit read.
Variety reported Sheriff Adan Mendoza told reporters Wednesday that multiple live rounds were possibly recovered from the scene, in addition to the one that killed Hutchins and injured Souza.
However, Gutierrez-Reed told investigators that live ammunition was not used on the set. She also alleged that during lunch the guns were stored in a safe in the prop truck and only a few people had access to the safe, according to Variety.
Gutierrez-Reed claimed the film's property master, Sarah Zachry, brought the firearms out of the truck and gave them to her.
According to the affidavit: "When Affiant asked about live ammo on set, Hannah responded no live-ammo is ever kept on set."
Gutierrez-Reed allegedly checked the "dummy" rounds earlier in the day to ensure they were not "hot" rounds, she told investigators. According to the interview, the ammunition was kept on a cart during lunch, where it was not secured, Variety reported.
Who Is Hannah Gutierrez-Reed?
Gutierrez-Reed, 24, is a professional armorer—a weapons expert used on film sets to ensure the safety and proper use of prop weapons.
She is the daughter of Thell Reed, a veteran armorer in the film industry who is a former U.S. Marine, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Gutierrez-Reed grew up on Hollywood sets, often tagging along with her father who worked on several films including as Brad Pitt's gun coach for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and as a quick draw expert on Django Unchained, the Times reported.
Rust was Gutierrez-Reed's second film working as the lead armorer.
She also worked on the film The Old Way (starring Nicolas Cage) in August as the head armorer. According to a September interview with the Voices of the West podcast, Reed nearly didn't take the job for The Old Way as she wasn't sure if she was ready.
Gutierrez-Reed said on the podcast: "I just finished up working on The Old Way with Nicolas Cage, his very first Western.
"It was also my first time being head armorer as well. You know, I was really nervous about it at first, and I almost didn't take the job because I wasn't sure if I was ready, but, doing it, like, it went really smoothly," she said, according to The U.S. Sun.
Gutierrez-Reed said loading blanks into guns was "the scariest thing" to her until her father helped train her, according to the podcast interview, the Times reported.
Fox News reported she also said the best part of her job is "showing people who are normally kind of freaked out by guns how safe they can be and how they're not really problematic unless put in the wrong hands," in the podcast interview.
According to a recent report by The Wrap website, Gutierrez-Reed was allegedly criticized over safety concerns during her work on The Old Way, which saw Cage reportedly walk off the set after screaming at her.
Stu Brumbaugh, who worked as key grip on The Old Way set, told The Wrap that Gutierrez-Reed had upset crew members and Cage during the production by not following basic safety protocols.
According to Brumbaugh, the Hollywood actor became irate with Gutierrez-Reed after she fired a gun near the cast for a second time in three days without first giving them a warning.
"Make an announcement, you just blew my f***ing eardrums out!," Brumbaugh claimed Cage yelled at her before storming off the set.
However, Jeffrey W. Crow, who supervised Gutierrez-Reed on The Old Way, defended her, noting he was "stymied" by the fact that she could have played a role in the fatal shooting on the set of Rust, according to the Times.
Crow told the Times: "I had never heard about Hannah until I was informed she would be my armorer, but my skepticism of her initially, about her lack of experience, was allayed after I'd worked with her."
According to a Fox News report, Gutierrez-Reed resides in a two-bedroom property near the Colorado River in Bullhead City, Arizona. The landlady of the property, who declined to provide her name, reportedly "doesn't want her living there anymore."
The landlady said: "I've told her she has to go," according to Fox News.
The U.S. Sun also reported (citing unnamed sources) claims that Gutierrez-Reed cancelled her social media accounts following the shooting incident.
Newsweek has reached out to Gutierrez-Reed for comment via the production company for Rust.
