LIVE: 'Rust' set armorer tried in death of cinematographer
01 Mar 2024 (10 months ago)
Accidental Discharges on Set
- Sarah and Hannah had two accidental discharges on set within 10 minutes of each other.
- Hannah was upset with Sarah for not taking responsibility for her actions and wanted to talk to production about it.
- Sarah was embarrassed and angry, and she texted Seth about the incident.
- Seth told Hannah to "get over it" and that it was an accident.
- Hannah didn't think it was a big deal and didn't want to get anyone in trouble, so she let Sarah handle it.
- Hannah is unsure if Sarah actually contacted the producers about the incidents.
- No one from production talked to Hannah or Sarah about the accidental discharges.
Loading and Unloading of Guns
- Hannah and Sarah continued to load and unload the guns after the incidents.
- The guns were locked up at all times when Hannah and Sarah were not there, including during lunch and on days off.
- Hannah was in the bathroom when the second accidental discharge happened with the stuntman.
- Hannah sometimes steps off set when there are only two people shooting and she needs to use the bathroom.
Discovery of Dummy Rounds
- Hannah found a box of 45 Long Colt dummies sitting on top of her stuff, which she thought was strange since they had been looking for those dummies and hadn't had many of them.
- The armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, found a box of dummy rounds in her bag while searching for blanks.
- She had never seen the box before and assumed it contained dummy rounds.
Loading the Guns on October 21st
- Prior to lunch, only three pistols belonging to Wood and Drum were loaded with dummies.
- Sarah and Hannah loaded Wood and Drum's pistols, while Hannah loaded Rust's pistol.
- Hannah specifically remembers loading four rounds without primer caps and then adding some dummies from the box.
- She encountered an issue with one of the rounds not fitting and showed it to Dave before handing the gun to Alec Baldwin.
- At the time of the incident, there were only five rounds in the gun.
- Hannah Gutierrez-Reed had five dummy rounds in her pocket during the interview on October 21st.
- Sarah and Hannah Gutierrez-Reed loaded the guns on October 21st, not Hannah alone.
- Hannah had five additional dummy rounds in her pocket during the interview on November 9th.
Handling of Guns After Lunch
- The guns were loaded fairly early in the day, around 10:30 am for Rust and 10 am for the other two.
- None of the rounds were taken out of the guns during lunch, they were just put in socks and brought to the truck before being placed in the safe.
- Sarah was likely the one who physically put the guns back in the safe.
- There were still some blanks left on the cart after lunch, around 10 boxes, with one box of dummies on top.
- Hannah is not sure who took the guns out of the safe after lunch, it was likely either her or Sarah.
- The guns were not checked again after they were taken out of the safe, except for the Rust gun which Hannah cleaned and checked for barrel obstructions.
- Hannah did not notice anything different about the rounds when she loaded them, and four of them still had depressed primers.
- Hannah believes that someone could have potentially put a live round in the box by opening it up and putting it in.
- It is hard to speculate exactly when someone could have had the opportunity to put a live round in the box, but the gun was handled by several people throughout the day.
Discrepancies and Inconsistencies
- There are inconsistencies in statements about when the gun was checked and the rounds were inspected.
- Hannah checked the rounds before and after lunch but only pulled out one round to inspect it.
- There was a box of ammunition on set that contained both live and dummy rounds, which is unusual and potentially dangerous.
- Hannah suspects that someone may have sabotaged the set by planting the box of mixed ammunition.
- Live rounds were found in various other places on set, not just in the box.
- Hannah did not see any safety bulletins or protocols related to ammunition or firearms on set.
Investigation and Evidence
- Detective Hannah Gutierrez-Reed is shown photographs of various items related to the shooting incident.
- She identifies a box as the one she handed to Lieutenant Benavides on the day of the incident.
- She notices that the box appears different from what she remembers, being dirty and not as clean as she recalled.
- Two live rounds found on top of the cart are shown to her, and she confirms that they came out of the gun.
- She is shown a photo of the inside of the prop truck and confirms that it is how they usually kept it, disorganized.
- She is surprised to