While actor and accused reckless killer Alec Baldwin has received most of the attention since shooting cinematographer Halyna Hutchins with what he assumed was a blank gun back on the set of Rust in October 2021, he’s not the only one flirting with justice in the killing.
The trial for the film’s armorer, 25-year-old Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, began yesterday in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Gutierrez-Reed is charged with involuntary manslaughter and tampering charges for allegedly loading a functional .45 revolver with dummy rounds and at least one live round, according to a Fox News report.
After the shooting, investigators found six live rounds on the set of the movie, some enclosed in a box of dummy ammo, in a gun belt worn by actor Jensen Ackles and in the Baldwin’s bandolier.
Prosecutors say that for whatever reason, Gutierrez-Reed was the one who brought the live rounds to the movie set.
“She failed to discover them for 12 days,” said prosecutor Kari Morrissey. “She loaded one of them into a gun. It was then manipulated by an actor and very foreseeably someone died.”
According to the complaint filed against Gutierrez-Reed, “Rust movie production hired Defendant Hannah Gutierrez as the Armorer on the movie set, and as such she was responsible for checking the firearm and ammunition prior to each use to ensure that live rounds never made their way into the firearm. Defendant Gutierrez failed at this simple task, and Ms. Hutchens died as a result.”
Adding to the armorer’s difficulty is evidence from her phone that she was smoking marijuana at the hotel during filming of the movie. Prosecutors plan to use that information in their attempt to convince the jury that factor contributed to her apparent negligence on the set.
If convicted, Gutierrez-Reed could face up to 18 months in prison. Baldwin, the star of the ill-fated film, faces similar charges and a similar prison term if convicted.
slap.
baldwin was the captain of that particular ship. Final responsibility was his. Hyphenated lady was at fault, also.
What is likely happening here is that she is being hung out to lessen the impact on baldwin. New Mexico is blue and corrupt. She will likely draw jail time and baldwin a slap on the wrist.
…could face up to 18 months in prison…
Meanwhile, the cinematographer got a death sentence. No appeal. No out early for good behavior.
“No appeal. No out early for good behavior.”
She got an early out, it just wasn’t the way she was hoping for… 🙁
I’ve heard this production wasn’t just run on a shoestring budget but was completely threadbare. The armorer was also being used as a general hand in the production and distracting them from their primary job.
“The armorer was also being used as a general hand in the production and distracting them from their primary job.”
Yep, there’s digital evidence of her complaining about it.
That doesn’t absolve her of the responsibility of armorer, *SAFETY*.
The correct response should have been “I’d really like to be a team player here, but lives are at stake.”
Sadly, it takes something like this every 30 years or so (The Crow) to make that point… 🙁
“baldwin was the captain of that particular ship. Final responsibility was his“
OK so if a deputy accidentally shoots someone, the sheriff should be charged with involuntary manslaughter.
If a beat cop accidentally shoot an innocent person, the police chief should be charged with involuntary manslaughter.
You have an interesting theory of the responsibility tree.
Carried on out, if you hire a carpenter to repair your steps and he does a better job when someone falls through it’s their head and dies of a subdural hematoma the homeowner should be charged with involuntary manslaughter, got it.
If you have your brakes repaired at a garage but after you pick up the car the brake pedal goes to the floor and you run over a kid at the crosswalk, you will be charged with involuntary manslaughter.
Good grief, Miner! You do recall that Baldwin was the one who pulled the trigger, right? He’s a police chief who hired an untrained deputy, borrowed the deputy’s gun, and murdered someone with it. He’s a homeowner who asked the carpenter to build stairs out of cardboard to save money and then invited guests to dance a jig on them. He’s a driver who told his mechanic that, “brakes are for losers.”
“murdered”
No one was murdered, you are just using prejudicial words in vain attempt to support your narrative.
“Baldwin was the one who pulled the trigger“
Yep, on a firearm that the experts had assured him was ‘cold’ and safe to use in a make-believe script.
“build stairs out of cardboard”
False equivalence, there’s no evidence showing Baldwin had instructed the armorer or Assistant Director to do their job improperly.
“told his mechanic that, “brakes are for losers.”
Again, there’s no evidence of Baldwin instructed the responsible experts to compromise their work, you’re just making claims without any substantiation.
Hey, I think Baldwin is a pompous ass as well, but that doesn’t change the facts of the case.
He was producer for the film. He is responsible for all safety on set. Period.
He was handling a firearm. He is personally responsible for handling it safely. Period.
He hired the armorer. He is responsible for her job performance, and for insisting that she follow standard safety protocols. Period.
He shot someone (two people). He is responsible for telling the truth about the matter, and not publicly peddling obvious falsehoods about the gun and whether or not he pulled the trigger.
Period.
Period. Period. Period.
Your attempts to excuse his obvious negligence and treat him like “the real victim” say much more about you than they do about him.
There is no level you will not sink to in order to defend your masters, is there miner? You are a reliable reminder of all that has gone wrong in our nation.
“she is being hung out“
She was the armorer on the set, she had a duty to ensure that the firearms were safe for use by the actors and that no live rounds had been introduced onto the set. She failed in both respects.
She will be found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and receive probation.
Baldwin’s production company will face a civil suit for liability and lose, settle for probably $5 million.
On this we agree. The armorer is also guilty of negligence.
Do these woke Hollyweird types do any/something to make a live round vs their dummy rounds? As drill a hole in the case. Or do the dummy rounds actually have powder/fire?
Supposed to have a pellet in there so they rattle when you shake them.
There are different kinds of ‘dummy’ rounds, some have powder but no bullet (a blank), others have a ball-bearing inside the case instead of powder, and I’ve seen pictures of some with holes drilled through the case…
Yes, and the firearm Baldwin was using had cartridges loaded so that for the close-up it would appear the weapon’s cylinder was loaded with live rounds.
There was no way Baldwin could tell whether or not they were live rounds, that’s why he ‘relied’ on the armorer and the assistant Director, the folks who actually loaded the firearm with the ‘dummy’ rounds.
This case will come down to two words, duty and reliance
The armorer and the assistant Director had a legal duty to ensure that the firearms were safe and not loaded with live rounds. They failed in this duty.
Baldwin relied on these experts’ assurances that the weapons were safe to use in filming the scene, he was justified in his reliance because these individuals had held themselves forth as experts and accepted compensation for that role.
“A legal duty is an obligation, created by law or contract. A legal duty requires a person to conform their actions to a particular standard. And it also carries with it a recognition that the law will enforce this duty to the benefit of other individuals to whom this duty is owed. Put another way, the existence of a legal duty depends on whether the interest that a defendant has allegedly invaded is entitled to legal protection. For example, in the context of tort law, a landowner may have a legal duty to protect invitees from hazards on their property, like an open pit”
“Reliance is legal concept defining the dependence by one person on another person’s or entity’s statements or actions, particularly where the person acts upon such dependence. The person on whom the person relied may be liable for damages if such reliance was reasonable and resulted in detriment to the relying person, in a doctrine known as promissory estoppel“
The first reaction to anyone familiar with firearms when one is passed to you is to check the gun to make sure is in a safe condition.
Baldwin didn’t check. Admittedly Colt SAAs are a pain to check because you have to unload and reload each cartridge. Baldwin bring the rabid anti-gun homophobe not only didn’t learn, he didn’t want to learn because of his hubris and arrogance.
There’s on often repeated statement said after many “accidental” shootings: “I thought it was unloaded”.
the word was supposed to be “hoplophobe”, as is someone with an irrational fear of firearms.
Stupid phone auto-correct.
Moderation enabled.
“There was no way Baldwin could tell whether or not they were live rounds,…”
You just lied.
He could have removed the shells, shook each one, to see if they had a ‘rattle’ or hole in the side of the case.
He didn’t. He’s guilty of negligent homicide… 🙁
Outside of a Salem Witch Hunt when all the clown show finger pointing is said and done it all circles back and lands smack dab on the doorsteps of the person who pulls the trigger.
Debbie,
I fully agree. A whole series of failures can occur and nothing bad happen IF the last person to pick it up simply checks it. Baldwin’s hatred for guns blinded him to learning how to use them safely. Those who say actors are not armorers and thus not responsible are morons. It took 5 minutes when I was 10 years old for my Dad to teach me how to use a gun safely and why.
Debbie,
Often have issues with you, but on this one, you are dead on. Someone hands you a gun and says “don’t worry; it’s unloaded/safe”, and you RELY on that, the only person responsible for the outcome is you. Gun is in your hand, YOU are responsible for what happens.
For what it’s worth, SAG/AFTRA, DGA, and various other Hollyweird mafia have some actually quite decent rules about firearms on set – they were TOTALLY ignored on the “Rust” set. Alec “Fatass” Baldwin was the producer, so he was the ultimate voice. On top of that, he had the gun IN HIS HAND, and pulled the trigger, so he is responsible two different ways. And while I dislike him and his idiot, Leftist/fascist politics, if it were someone I respect, I would STILL want them prosecuted (too bad gross stupidity isn’t a crime!). Alec needs a few years in the Greybar Hotel.
> Someone hands you a gun and says “don’t worry; it’s unloaded/safe”, and you RELY on that, the only person responsible for the outcome is you.
I know a trainer who has a funny little lesson. He SHOWS the student that the revolver cylinder is empty, stating that fact out loud. He choreographs a little 360 spin right after that, dropping an obvious dummy in a cylinder chamber, closing the crane, and handing it to the student. When the student DOESN’T check, he calls them on it. “You just showed me it’s empty!” OK. Look anyway. Always look.
Ooops. He always gets wide eyes and a fish mouth reaction.
Nice, I’ll have to use that… 🙂
I simply cannot imagine the totality of circumstances under which this could possibly happen. A dummy round, used for visual affect for revolvers being filmed from the front, has a cartridge, a bullet pressed in place, and no powder or primer. A blank, is a light charge or primer only cartridge with wadding and no bullet. If there’s a bullet and a primer it is a live round and has no place on the set. Everyone who touches a gun on set is fully responsible to verify the condition of the gun. Those who claim actors are too simple minded to do this and thus aren’t responsible are full of it. It takes violation of at least two of the four rules for really bad things to happen; Baldwin violated all 4.
true enough BUT in years past budget cuts and untrained crew killed Brandon Lee on set
I read the full report on the death because I worked movies for 30 years and we do cross train in a few things…the accident was 5 levels of stupid, BUT it happened because of many many slips ups and violations of procedures by the untrained
“I simply cannot imagine the totality of circumstances under which this could possibly happen.”
I can, it was a mass delusion that something bad couldn’t possibly happen to them…
“A dummy round, used for visual affect for revolvers being filmed from the front, has a cartridge, a bullet pressed in place, and no powder or primer“
Pictures of these rounds are available on the Internet, if you would look at those you would see that there was indeed an (inert) primer inserted into the cases, which were Starline brass.
You will also see that CSI recovered 50 round Styrofoam cartridge containers with both live and dummy rounds intermixed, the only visible difference being the live primers were shiny silver as opposed to a more brass/bronze look for the inert primers.
This will come down on the armorer who brought live rounds onto the set in violation of SAG/AFTRA rules.
Classic case of multiple people not following simple and clear safety rules. This was a needless death and everyone who handled that revolver from the person who loaded it to the one who fired the deadly shot is clearly guilty of a crime. Nothing can undo the harm that was done and it is clear that there was a slipshod attitude present on the set that lead to her death.
“Classic case of multiple people not following simple and clear safety rules.”
A classic example of “The Swiss Cheese Model” of accidents, all the holes lined up :
You can’t legislate away negligence. There were rules and industry standards in place for a reason. They chose not to follow them.
Prosecutors plan to use that information in their attempt to convince the jury that factor contributed to her apparent negligence on the set.
Remember when I said I wouldn’t hire a drug user because they are a liability waiting to happen? It doesn’t matter if the drug use had anything to do with the negligence, or even an honest accident. When something like that happens, you might be held responsible for what your employee did if they were getting high on the job. Every single pot smoker I know has, at some point, been high on the job, or on company grounds.
Executive Producer IS responsible for what’s goes on in a movie production. Period. Hire a druggie chick & that’s what you get!
Was she cheap? This was such a low budget production, and probably a vanity production, the executive producer was also the director and main star.
Tightwad Baldwin was trying to stretch each dollar as far as it would go.
Are you trying to say if you were there in place of Alec Baldwin you would have willy-nilly shot the woman too? Please Advise.
Additional questions; Who owns the guns? Who purchased the guns? Pot smoking armorer? Where are the Federal charges?
“Additional questions; Who owns the guns? Who purchased the guns? Pot smoking armorer?”
I believe the film production leased the guns from a prop house that owned them…
Those gosh darn democRats…
if you want to read the rules on GUNS on movie sets….here they are and a few years back I was crew in HollyWERID for 30 years and I NEVER touched guns BUT I HAD TO READ THE SAFETY rules AND be at the safety meeting BEFORE each use!
https://www.csatf.org/production-affairs-safety/safety-bulletins/
bobo,
I, too, am at least passingly familiar with the SAG-AFTRA/DGA rules about firearms. IF followed scrupulously, this accident (in the most generous POSSIBLE evaluation of this complete eff ep) couldn’t have happened. Just like it wouldn’t have happened if Baldwin had observed ANY of Cooper’s “Four Rules”. Obviously, they ignored both . . . and they SHOULD face penalties for that (the producers, the director, and anyone who handled a gun is, IMHO, partly liable). I don’t blame “the rules” – if followed, they would have worked. I blame the people who blatantly chose to ignore them.
Alec Baldwin’s name comes up at the top of that list, no matter how you parse it.
“if you want to read the rules on GUNS on movie sets“
Thanks for posting this but…
“Revised 12/19/23“
These rules are the current rules, they have been changed since the ‘Rust’ incident.
I remain mystified that functional firearms are utilized as “prop guns.”. Semiautomatic as well as fully automatic firearms are routinely modified with blank firing adapters to enable them to cycle when firing blanks. This renders them incapable of discharging a projectile from a live cartridge. This also enhances the acoustic effects. There is no reason why revolvers, shotguns and other types of firearms can’t be modified to prevent them from discharging projectiles from live rounds.
The idea that a film crew can routinely and often simultaneously violate all four rules of gun safety and not kill anyone because they are absolutely certain that the gun really isn’t loaded with live rounds is ludicrous. This reminds me of the scum sucking whore of an attorney who argues that his marijuana bootlegging client isn’t a threat to my family because he only loads his Remington 870, 12 gauge shotgun with buckshot when he shoots at us.
Aaaaaaand that’s what happens when you have a diversity hire handling your guns.
She wasn’t really a diversity hire, her father is one of the most famous armorers in the movie business, it’s more of a nepotism thing like Don Junior and Eric.
‘Rust’ armorer’s father, Thell Reed, speaks out on fatal incident and investigation
“I’m not worried,” Thell Reed told ABC News in an exclusive interview.
ByKaylee Hartung,Morgan Winsor andEboni Griffin
December 7, 2021, 10:38 AM ET“
“She had two duties: prop duties and armor duties,” Bowles told ABC News in the interview airing Tuesday. “She had spun the cylinder, she had given it to Halls, she had shown him each of the six rounds. Halls was going to take custody of that weapon. He was inside the church then, Hannah was outside the church having to do her prop duties.”
“According to an affidavit for a search warrant filed on Oct. 22 by the sheriff’s office as part of the ongoing probe, Halls handed a Colt .45 revolver to Baldwin while proclaiming “cold gun,” to let the crew know a gun with no live rounds was being used. Halls told investigators he did not know there were any live rounds in the firearm he gave to the actor, according to the affidavit.
Baldwin confirmed the series of events to ABC News.
“I let go of the hammer — bang, the gun goes off,” the actor recalled in an earlier exclusive interview. “I would never point a gun at anyone and pull a trigger at them. Never. Never. That was the training that I had. You don’t point a gun at somebody and pull the trigger.”
https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Entertainment/rust-armorers-father-thell-reed-speaks-fatal-incident/story?id=81600262
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