SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) –The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office released hundreds of hours of footage and interviews following the deadly shooting on the Rust movie set in Santa Fe. The videos included the interviews of the movie’s armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed. Detectives wanted to know everything which included how live rounds got on the set and how they can tell the difference between a dummy round and a live round.
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When detectives told Hannah Gutierrez-Reed that they found multiple live rounds stored on the set of Rust, she responded, “Yeah that is news to me. Wow.” It was a live round in a prop gun fired by Alec Baldwin that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
As the movie’s armorer, Gutierrez-Reed is in charge of the guns on set. Detectives had her walk them through how she checked the one that killed Hutchins.
Detective: “So you said only four had no primer caps and the other two did?”
Gutierrez-Reed: “The other two did. Yeah, I pulled that other one out slightly and looked for the hole.”
Detective: “Those holes are at the bottom though. You would have to pull it out a pretty good ways…”
Gutierrez-Reed: “I am pretty sure it was pretty midway.”
Detectives then questioned her about telling the difference between a live round and a dummy.
Detectives: “That was the one that came out of the gun.”
Gutierrez-Reed: “Yeah.”
Detectives: So I don’t know if you notice the commonality between these how we suspect them to be live.
Gutierrez-Reed: “The silver.”
Detectives: “That didn’t stick out to you when you loaded that gun?”
Gutierrez-Reed: “No”
The focus then turned to how live rounds got into several places where they keep dummy rounds. Gutierrez-Reed told detectives she never did any target practice or fired weapons on set for fun. The detective then pointed out something about the live rounds.
Detectives: “Here is my thing with this company is… this company does not produce live rounds.”
Gutierrez-Reed: “So what the F***. That’s insane.”
That had Gutierrez-Reed’s attorney questioning whether there was some sort of sabotage on set. The detective concludes the interview still wondering where the live ammo came from. “I have no idea. at this point it seems like these were mixed in,” said Gutierrez-Reed.
The case has been handed over to the Santa Fe County District Attorney. Last week, New Mexico Environment Department’s Occupational Health and Safety Bureau released the results of its investigation. The report found that the Rust Movie Productions, LLC management knew that firearm safety procedures were not followed on set and showed indifference to employee safety. The production company was issued a Willful-Serious citation that includes a $136,793 penalty. This is the maximum fine and highest level of citation allowed by state law in New Mexico.
