The attorneys for ‘Rust’ armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed are claiming a disgruntled film crew member may have planted the live round among the blanks to “sabotage” the Alec Baldwin movie.
There are several theories floating around about what caused the tragic death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
Some say crew were shooting target practice earlier that day and likely left a few live rounds in one of the guns. Another theory is that the amorer was lackadaisical about her responsibilities and simply didn’t pay attention to what rounds were being used.
But, to my knowledge, this is the first accusation of straight up sabotage.
During an interview with the Today show’s Savannah Guthrie on Wednesday, Jason Bowles argued on behalf of his client, ‘There was a box of dummy rounds, and the box is labeled “dummy,'” Bowles said. ‘[Gutierrez Reed] loaded rounds from that box into the handgun, only later to find out – she had no idea – that there was a live round.’
I need to make myself clear here. If she left those boxes unattended and someone tampered with them, that makes it, in part, her fault.
The armorer then handed the vintage Colt pistol to assistant director David Halls, who, in turn, passed it on to Baldwin and announced ‘cold gun,’ indicating that the weapon was safe to use, according to authorities investigating the deadly October 21 shooting near Santa Fe, New Mexico.
‘We’re assuming somebody put the live round in that box,’ Bowles told Guthrie. ‘The person who put the live round in the box of dummy rounds had to have the purpose of sabotaging the set. There is no other reason you would do that: that you would mix that live round in with the dummy rounds.’
It will be a long time before answers are final, if ever.
