The finger pointing is hot and heavy these days between members of the Rust set after Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed when Alec Baldwin’s gun went off on set last year.
The armorer, who is responsible for the guns, is now saying that Alec Baldwin volated gun safety protocols when he pointed the gun at Halyna Hutchins.
Via DC Examiner:
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.
“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.”
Baldwin is blaming the armorer for allowing a live round in the gun itself:
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.
The truth is both are to blame to some extent. But at the end of the day Baldwin should have checked his gun, especially considering it was a real gun. And without checking it, he aimed the gun at Hutchins and either pulled the trigger are cocked the gun with the hammer and released it.
There are at least three people responsible for the chain of custody of the firearm used to kill Hutchins… The Armorer, The AD, and Baldwin. If any of the above correctly did their job, Hutchins would be alive to see her kids. Baldwin ids quick to blame others but does not take responsibility for his own actions… Keep digging that hole, Alec!
very simple rules to LIVE by…
This is just a ploy by his lawyers to try and get him off the hook. He is responsible for the death of Hutchins. Some mistakes you can only make once, and someone pays for that mistake. In most cases it’s the person that makes the mistake. In others it’s a bystander. Examples are, going skydiving and forget to strap on a parachute. Going around down crossing gates at a railroad crossing. You learn when it’s too late.