Rust movie armorer’s lawyers make sabotage claims about shooting incident

Last Updated on November 5, 2021

The tragedy on the Rust set that left rising cinematographer Halyna Hutchins dead and director Joel Souza wounded, continues to unfold and it appears as the story continues to take shape, those alleged to be in a position to be responsible for safety on set, are starting to play the blame game. Lawyers for Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who was the armorer on the set of the movie, are suggesting that some sort of sabotage may have taken place that led to the tragic incident.

During an appearance on the Today Show, the lawyers for Gutierrez-Reed, Jason Bowles and Robert Gorence introduced a sabotage theory that disgruntled employees may be to blame and suggested that one of them may have planted the live round that killed Hutchins inside a box of dummy rounds. The lawyer’s comments speak on events that took place hours before the shooting which saw about six members of the camera crew walk off the set because of issues surrounding payment and housing. Earlier reports suggested that the crew that walked off did so because of unsafe working conditions but the issues over money and accommodations have recently been introduced into the narrative. Gutierrez-Reed’s lawyers suggest that this could have possibly been the motivation for sabotaging the set by mixing in a live round with dummy rounds and Bowles went on to say, “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, that they’re unhappy. And we know that people had walked off the set the day before.”

This is a VERY serious theory to throw out there but as the lawyers for Gutierrez-Reed, I get why they have to present a scenario where she isn’t at fault. Along with the First A.D. David Halls, Gutierrez-Reed has been the focus of a lot of attention as to where the blame lies because she was the armorer on the set and should have been more proactive about checking the weapons. So, even if this theory has some truth to it, the gun still should’ve been checked thoroughly to ensure that there were only dummy rounds in the gun. What makes the sabotage theory so damming is that, if it’s found to be true, that meant a disgruntled worker wanted to risk someone’s life just to prove a point that the conditions on the film weren’t up to par. That turns this story into something else entirely. It should also be noted, in the case of First A.D. Halls, he admitted to the Sheriff’s Office that he did not properly check the gun before declaring it a “cold gun” and handing it over to Baldwin for a “quick draw” rehearsal scene. Halls was also fired from a previous film due to gun safety lapses.

Bowles went on to say that “I think you can’t rule anybody at this point” when he was pressed that someone on the crew may be to blame for the incident. Bowles suggests that the alleged sabotage could’ve taken place between 11:00 AM and 1:00 PM while the crew was on lunch. Bowles said, “the firearms at times were unattended, so there was opportunity to tamper with the scene.”

So what about the claims that crew members were using prop guns for target practice? Bowles claims that his client was unaware that this was taking place and didn’t hear any of this going on when it allegedly happened. It seems to me that they’re doing their job to take the ownness off of her but part of her job on the set was to be on top of these very weapons. If they were using prop guns on the set for target practice, it seems a bit far-fetched that she didn’t know about it or at least heard it but they’re maintaining that she was completely unaware.

In a statement obtained by “Deadline“, Gutierrez-Reed, through her lawyers, offer up more support of the sabotage claims. Here is what the statement said:

“Hannah Gutierrez Reed would like to add a few points to the continuing narrative on the tragic events surrounding the shooting on the Rust set. First, Hannah was incredibly safety conscious and took her job very seriously from the moment she started on October 4th. She did firearms training for the actors as well as Mr. Baldwin, she fought for more training days and she regularly emphasized to never point a firearm at a person. Never in a million years did Hannah think that live rounds could have been in the “dummy” Round box. Who put those in there and why is the central question. Hannah kept guns locked up, including throughout lunch on the day in question, and she instructed her department to watch the cart containing the guns when she was pulled away for her other duties or on a lunch break. Hannah did everything in her power to ensure a safe set. She inspected the rounds that she loaded into the firearms that day. She always inspected the rounds. She did again right before handing the firearm to Mr. Halls, by spinning the cylinder and showing him all of the rounds and then handing him the firearm. No one could have anticipated or thought that someone would introduce live rounds into this set.”

This situation continues to evolve each day and as each person of interest lawyers up, there are going to be many theories and claims as to why this happened. Hopefully, the truth does come out and Hutchins’ death won’t be in vain because it’s clear that safety on set needs to be a priority and improvements need to be made.

What are YOUR thoughts on the lawyer’s sabotage claims?