Attorneys Of 'Rust' Armorer Say The Fatal Shooting On Set May Have Been A Result Of 'Sabotage'

Actor Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun on the sets of his new 19th Century western film Rust, killing the cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. He also wounded the director, Joel Souza. It was declared an accident at the time of the incident, and Baldwin also claimed that he was told the prop was safe to use. Now, attorneys are claiming that this could have possibly been sabotage. 

It was found that the gun that was handed to Baldwin was loaded with live rounds. According to a search warrant filed in a Santa Fe court, the assistant director who had handed the gun to the actor and assured him it was safe moments before the fatal shot had even announced, "Cold gun" on the set, reported the Associated Press. 

The released court records showed that the fired gun was one of three that was being handled by the film's armorer, Hannah Gutierrez, who had set the guns on a cart outside the wooden structure where a scene was being filmed. One of the guns was picked by assistant director Dave Halls who was unaware that the gun was loaded. He then handed it to Baldwin, who fired the gun. It was unclear how many rounds were fired. Gutierrez is said to have removed a shell casing from the gun after the shooting and turned the weapon over to police when they arrived.

Attorneys for Gutierrez are now investigating whether someone put a live bullet in a box of dummy rounds with the purpose of "sabotaging the set." Gutierrez is being represented by Jason Bowles and Robert Gorence, who believe that their client is being set up. Speaking to TODAY, Bowles said, "I believe that somebody who would do that would want to sabotage the set, want to prove a point, want to say that they're disgruntled, they're unhappy. And we know that people had walked off the set the day before." He added that every crew member is a possible suspect, and no one can be ruled out.

Bowles added, "We know there was a live round in a box of dummy rounds that shouldn't have been there. We have people who had left the set, who had walked out because they were disgruntled." They had earlier believed that there was a two-hour time frame that the firearms were unattended, which meant "there was an opportunity to tamper with this scene." But it was later clarified that the truck in which the props were kept was left unattended only for 10 to 15 minutes. 

The walkout the attorneys are referring to was when seven of the film's camera crew packed up their personal gear and walked off the job, citing a wide range of complaints, just hours before the shooting. The complaints included the safety of the crew after a similar misfiring incident had taken place earlier, as well as "lack of payment for three weeks, taking our hotels away despite asking for them in our deals, lack of Covid safety, and on top of that, poor gun safety! Poor on-set safety period!" as stated by a member of the crew, reported DEADLINE. The firearms on the set of the film had been a concern for the crew all along.