I “DIDN’T really check it too much”, said the woman in charge of the gun that was fatally fired on the set of Rust.

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, armorer on the low-budget movie, told this to police as they probed how live rounds ended up on the New Mexico film set last month, leading to the death of Halyna Hutchins.

The cinematographer was shot and killed as Alec Baldwin rehearsed a scene in which he fires a gun at the camera.

Gutierrez-Reed told investigators that she had loaded the Colt .45 with five dummy rounds before a lunch break, according to an affidavit released yesterday.

After lunch, the gun was retrieved from a safe, and she added a final round before handing it to another crew member. Moments later, she heard a gunshot from inside the set.

Gutierrez-Reed said she “didn’t really check it too much” as the weapon had been locked up at lunch.

“We had the gun the whole time before that, and nothing happened, and I was not in there, and they were not even supposed to be pulling the hammer back,” she added.

Police have seized more than 500 rounds of ammunition from the set, which they believed to be a mix of blanks, dummy rounds and suspected live ammunition.

Investigators shared new information about the possible origin of live rounds yesterday.

The ammunition for the production came from multiple sources, including Seth Kenney, an Arizona weapon rental supplier.

Kenney told investigators that he may have passed “reloaded ammunition” to the Rust set, which matched the logo on a cartridge suspected to have contained the live round that killed Halyna.

“Reloaded ammunition” refers to rounds that are assembled from component parts, not manufactured as complete live rounds.

Gutierrez-Reed’s father Thell Reed, a veteran armorer, said he had provided live ammo to Kenney on a past film they worked on together that was “not factory made”, and which was never returned.

Prosecutors have refused to rule out criminal charges against any person involved with Rust, including Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed.

The pair are among those named in at least two civil suits filed by other crew members.

Gutierrez-Reed said she has “no idea” why live rounds were present, and her lawyers suggested “sabotage” by disgruntled crew members may have caused the tragic shooting.

Reports emerged of disquiet among staff over allegedly lax safety procedures, and Santa Fe Sheriff Adan Mendoza has spoken of “complacency” on the New Mexico set.

But Baldwin has called the tragedy a “one in a trillion episode” and insisted Rust had a “well-oiled crew”. – AFP, December 1, 2021.