Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed fears ‘she’ll never work again’ after cinematographer shot dead on set with prop gun
THE rookie armorer overseeing Alec Baldwin's movie Rust is distraught and fears she won’t work in the movie industry again after the star actor accidentally shot cinematographer Halyna Hutchins dead, The Sun can reveal.
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who has been characterized by former co-workers as “green and inexperienced”, believes her career in the film industry could be over after the onset tragedy.
HOLLYWOOD CAREER NIGHTMARE
“Hannah is heartbroken and knows that she probably won’t work in the movie industry again,” a source close to the 24-year-old’s family exclusively told The Sun.
The source expressed how crestfallen Gutierrez-Reed feels after it’s been alleged that the movie armory team fitted the actor with an FD Pietta Colt .45 revolver loaded with a live round that killed Hutchins and injured the Western film’s director Joel Souza.
“She is distraught,” the source said, adding the incident could crush her chances at launching a Hollywood career.
“This job was the way for her to get out of this town [Bullhead City, Arizona].”
The young armorer fears her career prospects are bleak.
“She is very worried that no one is going to hire after this and she will have to find a new job,” the source said.
Read our Alec Baldwin shooting live blog for the very latest news and updates...
Meanwhile, Gutierrez-Reed has been laying low and retained an attorney.
"Her family are supporting her and helping her look for a good lawyer - they feel she's going to need one," another source told The Sun.
Most read in The US Sun
Friends of Gutierrez-Reed also told The Sun she has "gone dark" and is "not ready to talk" about the tragic incident in Santa Fe, New Mexico on the afternoon of October 21, as she has shut down all of her social media accounts.
One said: "A mutual friend reached out and she said she wasn't ready to talk, and naturally we don't know what happened and who was negligent. It's unfair to make assumptions."
Speaking on Voice of the West, she said: "It was a really bada** way to start off a really long and cool career, I'm hoping. I just finished up working on The Old Way with Nicolas Cage, his very first Western.
"It was also my first time being head armorer as well. You know, I was really nervous about it at first, and I almost didn’t take the job because I wasn’t sure if I was ready, but, doing it, like, it went really smoothly."
She had previously served as a head armorer on The Old Way with Nicolas Cage, his first Western, and worked at Yellowstone Film Ranch in Montana.
Gutierrez-Reed the daughter of long-time film industry armorer, Thell Reed.
HALYNA’S DAD: ‘DON’T BLAME BALDWIN’
Halyna's father refuses to blame Baldwin for his daughter’s untimely death - and instead pointed his finger at movie armory team over the prop tragedy in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Anatoly Androsovych told The Sun Halyna's young son had been "badly affected," by her death, adding that her husband Matthew will be deciding whether or not to take legal action.
The same Colt pistol that Baldwin accidentally fired that killed Halyna, 42, was allegedly used for target practice hours before the cinematographer’s onset death.
An unnamed insider with knowledge of the New Mexico movie set reportedly witnessed some cast members fire prop guns - including the one that killed Hutchins - to go “plinking” to kill time, according to The Wrap.
The report alleged the guns were fired to shoot cans.
Santa Fe County district attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies described those claims as “unconfirmed” in an interview with the New York Times .
The shooting happened hours later and Halyna died from her injuries in hospital.
DA: ‘LEGIT GUN’
Assistant director Dave Halls picked up one of the guns that were on a cart and yelled “cold gun”, according to an affidavit signed by Joel Cano, of the Santa Fe County sheriff’s office.
The phrase “cold gun” means the weapon doesn’t contain live rounds of ammunition and is safe to handle.
It comes as investigators discovered an "alarming" amount of weapons, including three revolvers, spent casings, and ammo as they searched the movie set.
The items were stored in boxes, a fanny pack, or left out, according to an inventory released on Monday.
Testing is already underway to figure out if the lead projectile recovered from 48-year-old director Joel Souza’s shoulder was fired from Baldwin's long Colt revolver.
He also said that a "lead projectile" was recovered from the shoulder of wounded director Joel Souza and handed over as evidence.
"I think the facts are clear - a weapon was handed to Mr Baldwin.
"The weapon is functional and fired a live round killing Ms Hutchins and injuring Mr Souza," he said about the fatal shooting.
Two other guns confiscated as evidence include a single-action revolver that may have been modified and a plastic prop gun that was described as a revolver.
Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza told reporters out of the 600 pieces of evidence, there were 500 rounds of ammunition on the set of Rust.
They include a combination of both blanks, dummy rounds and live rounds.
The sheriff would not comment on how the rounds managed to physically be found onset.
Carmack-Altwies said: "There were an enormous amount of bullets on this set, and we need to find out what kinds they were."
She said the term “prop gun” could give a misleading impression that the weapon wasn’t real.
“It was a legit gun,” she said. “It was an antique-era appropriate gun.”
'EVERYTHING IS ON THE TABLE'
The prosecutor also revealed that she is not ruling out bringing criminal charges, saying: "Everything at this point, including criminal charges, is on the table."
Cops are still quizzing people who were on the film set at the time of last week's accident.
Carmack-Altwies said: "It's probably weeks, if not months of follow-up investigation that we're going to need to get to the point of charging."
Bill Davis, a police officer for 21 years who has worked extensively as a prop master armorer, told The Sun that charges of involuntary manslaughter could be on the table for both armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed and Assistant Director David Halls.
"There’s a lot of negligence and stuff to go around here. Heads are going to roll," said Davis, who has worked on more than 300 movies and TV shows including SAW.
"I don’t want to see anyone get into trouble, but if I was still a police officer, or a judge, then I would be pursuing criminal charges."
Read More on The US Sun
Davis added: "First of all, I will guarantee that Alec Baldwin will never serve 10 minutes in jail, ever.
"But he was a producer on this show, so the producers are financially responsible. Ultimately, those are the people that will be sued."
We pay for your stories!
Do you have a story for The US Sun team?
Email us at exclusive@the-sun.com or call 212 416 4552.
Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TheSunUS and follow us from our main Twitter account at @TheSunUS