Alec Baldwin shooting: ‘Rust’ armorer’s attorney suggests possible ‘sabotage’ on set

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed’s attorney has issued a new statement just hours after he suggested in TV interviews that someone may have been trying to “sabotage” the film’s set before a fatal shooting last month.

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In a statement late Wednesday, attorney Jason Bowles said Gutierrez Reed, 24, doesn’t know how a live bullet got inside the gun before the Oct. 21 shooting, which occurred as actor Alec Baldwin was practicing pointing the weapon at the camera lens, The Associated Press reported. The gun discharged, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza, who was standing behind Hutchins, KOAT reported.

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Before Baldwin began rehearsing the scene, assistant director Dave Halls removed the weapon from a cart and said it was a “cold gun,” meaning that it had no live rounds in it, according to court records obtained by the AP, The New York Times and KOAT.

Gutierrez Reed had loaded the weapon with rounds from a box of “dummy” prop ammunition, Bowles said Wednesday.

>> ‘Rust’ armorer has ‘no idea’ how live rounds got on set, attorneys say

“Never in a million years did Hannah think that live rounds could have been in the ‘dummy’ round box,” Bowles’ statement read. “Who put those in there and why is the central question. Hannah kept guns locked up, including throughout lunch on the day in question, and she instructed her department to watch the cart containing the guns when she was pulled away for her other duties or on a lunch break.”

The statement continued: “Hannah did everything in her power to ensure a safe set. She inspected the rounds that she loaded into the firearms that day. She always inspected the rounds. She did again right before handing the firearm to Mr. Halls, by spinning the cylinder and showing him all of the rounds and then handing him the firearm. No one could have anticipated or thought that someone would introduce live rounds into this set.”

>> Read the full statement here

Earlier Wednesday, Bowles suggested in televised interviews that someone may have put real ammunition in the “dummy” box in an attempt to “sabotage” the production, according to the Los Angeles Times.

“Why would you do that other than to try to cause some incident on the set?” Bowles told “Good Morning America” on Wednesday. “Now, we’re not saying anybody had any intent there was going to be a tragedy – a homicide – but they wanted to do something to cause a safety incident on set. That’s what we believe happened.”

>> Alec Baldwin shooting: Actor gives on-camera interview about tragedy

Bowles made a similar case on the “Today” show, saying someone may have planted the ammunition to “prove a point.” He added that some crew members had “walked off the set the day before” the deadly shooting because they were unhappy about their working conditions.

Bowles did not present any evidence for the claims.

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In a Wednesday night interview with CNN, Lane Luper, a former “Rust” camera assistant who resigned Oct. 20, slammed Bowles’ theories as “dangerous and irresponsible.”

The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Department declined to comment on Bowles’ remarks, and the production company for “Rust” has not replied to a request for comment, according to CNN.

No one has been charged in the incident, which remains under investigation.

Read more here.

– The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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