“Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed issued a statement to deny claims regarding the on-set shooting involving Alec Baldwin last week.
Her attorneys, New Mexico-based lawyers Jason Bowles and Robert Gorence, said that there were rushed conditions on the low-budget film’s set, disputing claims that crew members used live ammunition for target practice.
“Safety is Hannah’s number one priority on set,” her attorneys said in a statement to news outlets on Thursday. “Ultimately this set would never have been compromised if live ammo were not introduced. Hannah has no idea where the live rounds came from.”
Reed, meanwhile, said that she never saw live rounds being used by any of the weapons she handled on the set.
However, the two lawyers said there were two accidental discharges on the set, but they didn’t involve Reed.
“The first one on this set was the prop master and the second one was a stunt man after Hannah informed him his gun was hot with blanks,” they said in the statement.
“Hannah was hired on two positions on this film, which made it extremely difficult to focus on her job as an armorer,” Bowles and Gorence added, without elaborating on her other job role. “She fought for training, days to maintain weapons, and proper time to prepare for gunfire but ultimately was overruled by production and her department,” the lawyers also said.
An affidavit filed on Oct. 27 stated that Reed had told officials on the day of the shooting that she checked the gun’s ammunition, adding there were never live rounds on the set.
The shooting incident in New Mexico left cinematographer Halyna Hutchins dead and director Joel Souza injured. Authorities investigating the incident said Baldwin, 63, fired the gun during the filming of a scene more than a week ago.
Baldwin, who has issued few statements on the matter, wrote on Twitter that he’s cooperating in the investigation and offered condolences to Hutchins’ family. The actor has not been charged with a crime.
Earlier this week, Sante Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said during a news conference that hundreds of rounds of ammunition were recovered from the set, including the spent shell casing of the bullet that is believed to have killed Hutchins.
Ammunition found on the set included a “mix of blanks, dummy rounds, and what we are suspecting [are] live rounds,” he said, without ruling out whether charges will be filed in the case.
Baldwin’s representatives have not yet responded to a request for comment.
