Attorneys for Rust-Armor Hannah Gutierrez Reed have accused the Alec Baldwin film’s producers of allowing an “unsafe” set for the accidental shooting that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, but two of her former colleagues have sounded in recently published text messages anything but convinced.
On Monday, nearly a week after New Mexico fined the indie western $136,793 for not following safety procedures, Santa Fe police released all documents pertaining to their ongoing investigation into the incident relate. No charges have been filed and authorities are still working to determine how a live round got into Baldwin’s prop cannon and how the bullet went unnoticed during security inspections. The documents released Monday include a police interview with Baldwin, crime scene photos and phone records from various crew members.
Also of particular interest is perhaps a heated exchange in which Rust’s props master Sarah Zachry and costume designer Terese Davis discuss remarks made by Reed and her attorneys about the accidental shooting and the circumstances that caused it.
According to Reed and pre-shoot emails verified by the Los Angeles Times, the gunsmith appears to have worked two jobs on the low-budget film, at least initially. As production manager Gabrielle Pickle told Reed weeks before the accident, “We hired you as both an armor prop and a key assistant.”
In an email to Pickles, Reed reportedly replied, “Since we started, I’ve had many days when my job should just be to focus on everyone’s guns and safety… When I’m forced to do both.” to do [jobs]mistakes are made there.”
Davis and Zachry’s texts – verified by The Daily Beast from the police publication – raise smears about how much time Reed ever spent on props and rail against their attorneys’ defense tactics.
“Do you have a record of conversations with the production about her not doing her job as assistant prop master?” Davis asks the prop master in an Oct. 29 text. The prop master insists, “Hannah NEVER helped with props. The only time she did it was when I got off set a couple of times. So we found a buyer to help her fill her gap.”
In a statement released shortly after last year’s accident, Reed said Attorney Jason Bowles wrote, “Safety is Hannah’s number one priority on set. Ultimately, this set would never have been compromised had live ammunition not been introduced. Hannah has no idea where the live rounds came from.”
“Hannah was cast in two positions for this film, which made it extremely difficult to focus on her job as a gunsmith,” the statement added. “She struggled for training, days to wait on guns, and enough time to prepare for shots, but was ultimately overruled by production and her department. The entire production set became unsafe due to various factors including a lack of safety briefings. It wasn’t Hannah’s fault.” (The Daily Beast reached out to Reed’s attorneys for further comment on the volume of documents released, but they declined.)
In her conversation with Davis, Zachry writes, “I can’t believe Hannah said ‘her department’ denied her more gun practice. I HAD THE SAME TIME TO PREP AS YOU.”
“She also apparently used those types of guns right before this production in the Nick Cage movie,” Zachry added, “so she knew how to use the guns.”
“She also apparently used those types of guns right before this production in the Nick Cage film, so she knew how to use the guns.”
The Cage film in question would be The Old Way. While working on this film, a source told The Daily Beast that Reed — the daughter of veteran Hollywood armorer Thell Reed — “was a little careless with the guns and waved them around every now and then… A couple of times she was loading the.” Blanks and in a way that we felt was unsafe.” Reed didn’t respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment at the time.
While discussing Reed’s reaction to the fatal accident in Rust with Zachry, costume designer Davis said, “She’s disgusting. i am so disgusted [sic] from her right now. She messed it up. She killed someone. And instead of taking responsibility and facing it, she tries to take everyone else with her.”
In a later message, Davis writes that Reed “didn’t do her job right. And she had plenty of time for that because we had extra time that morning while the camera was fucking off. So she can say whatever she wants about the practice time and all that shit, but that’s not why she killed Halyna.”
“There are protocols that would have prevented Halyna’s death if Hannah had followed them,” Davis later adds. “She broke SO many, as she admits. This is intent. She is liable. She will go down for manslaughter.”
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A sign directs people to the road leading to Bonanza Creek Ranch where the film Rust is being filmed on October 22, 2021 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Sam Wasson/Getty
Reed sued Rust’s gun supplier in January, alleging that the company shipped a contaminated box of dummy bullets that contained at least one live cartridge. Last week, she and her attorneys celebrated a small victory when the New Mexico Occupational Safety and Health Bureau released the findings of a six-month investigation that ended in a massive fine for Rust’s producers.
In a video statement accompanying the state’s decision, New Mexico Secretary of the Environment James Kenney said the production was plagued by “serious management errors” and that “if standard industry practices were followed, the fatal shooting of Halyna Hutchins and the serious injury of Joel Souza wouldn’t have happened.”
In a statement to Deadline, Reed’s attorney, Jason Bowles, wrote, “Following OSHA’s very comprehensive safety investigation, which included numerous interviews and document reviews, it concluded that production intentionally failed to follow national gun safety standards, which caused this tragedy …OSHA determined that despite her concerns, Hannah Gutierrez Reed was not provided with adequate time or resources to perform her work effectively.”