Rust Armourer Makes Serious Claims About Alec Baldwin's Gun Safety Before Deadly Shooting
Topics: Alec Baldwin, Film and TV
Hannah Smith
Featured Image Credit: Alamy/Facebook/Voices of the West
Topics: Alec Baldwin, Film and TV
The armourer on the set of Rust has accused Alec Baldwin of 'constant resistance' to efforts to train him in gun safety ahead of the fatal shooting of Halyna Hutchins.
Responding to a legal filing in which Baldwin claimed he had been told to aim the revolver toward the camera by Hutchins moments before it went off, Hannah Gutierrez Reed said doing so was a total violation of all gun safety protocols.
'Mr. Baldwin knew that he could never point a firearm at crew members under any circumstances and had a duty of safety to his fellow crew members,' Reed said in a statement issued Saturday, March 12.
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'Yet he did point the gun at Halyna before the fatal incident against all rules and common sense.'
The 24-year-old armourer also claimed that Baldwin and others on the set failed to call her to perform safety checks ahead of the 'impromptu' rehearsal when she 'should have been' in attendance.
'[They] had a duty and responsibility to call Hannah in for inspection of the gun and safety instruction before any gun scene was conducted,' the statement read, adding that she had not been aware of what was happening inside the church at the time of the incident.
In addition, Reed alleged that while Baldwin was supposed to be responsible for ensuring the safety of those around him on set, she had encountered 'constant resistance' from him when trying to offer him training, and had ignored her warnings that she should be the one to check the safety of firearms.
According to the statement, which was obtained by CNN, 'Hannah emphasized the importance of training Mr. Baldwin in the cross draw, which is dangerous... he never accepted the offer and Hannah was not able to conduct that training as well as other training she wanted to do, because of budgeting and being overruled by production.'
Reed's statement comes after Baldwin last week filed legal documents in which he claimed he bore no responsibility for Hutchins' death, and blamed Reed for failing to check that the gun was safe.
'An actor cannot rule that a gun is safe. That is the responsibility of other people on the set,' he wrote, claiming Reed had specifically told him not to check that no live bullets were in the firearm.
In response to Baldwin's claims, lawyers representing Hutchins' family called the actor 'shameful', saying he was 'trying to avoid liability and accountability for his reckless actions'.
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