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The armorer on the set of Alec Baldwin’s flick “Rust” has accused him of violating gun-safety rules and claimed she was not asked to inspect the revolver he used in the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
Hannah Gutierrez Reed responded to a legal filing in which Baldwin said Hutchins told him to cock the antique revolver, CNN reported.
“Mr. Baldwin knew that he could never point a firearm at crew members under any circumstances and had a duty of safety to his fellow crew members,” Gutierrez Reed said in a statement Saturday, according to the network.
“Yet he did point the gun at Halyna before the fatal incident against all rules and common sense,” she added.
Gutierrez Reed said Baldwin and others on the Western set “had a duty and responsibility to call Hannah in for inspection of the gun and safety instruction before any gun scene was conducted.”
“Hannah was not called into the Church before the impromptu gun scene rehearsal and she should have been,” according to the statement cited by CNN.
The rookie armorer said she didn’t know what was happening inside the church set on the day of the shooting and that the 63-year-old star was responsible for helping maintain the safety of the crew.
Gutierrez Reed said she encountered “constant resistance” from Baldwin and production staffers during her time on the set, according to CNN.
“Hannah emphasized the importance of training Mr. Baldwin in the cross draw, which is dangerous,” the statement reportedly said.
“He never accepted the offer and Hannah was not able to conduct that training as well as other training she wanted to do, because of budgeting and being overruled by production.”
Baldwin claimed last week that Gutierrez Reed ordered him not to double-check that the revolver had no live bullets in it, saying “it was her job to check the gun – not his.”
“An actor cannot rule that a gun is safe. That is the responsibility of other people on the set,” Baldwin said in legal papers filed Friday in which he denied any responsibility for shooting Hutchins.
He insisted that every single mistake leading to the Oct. 21 shooting on the New Mexico set was “performed by someone else.”
Baldwin’s filing revealed that he made an “exhaustive effort” to get the crew back together to finish the doomed movie even after a flurry of lawsuits blamed him for mom-of-one Hutchins’ death.
“This is a rare instance when the system broke down, and someone should be held legally culpable for the tragic consequences,” the star’s lawyer, Luke Nikas, wrote in an arbitration filing.
The arbitration demand against Baldwin’s fellow producers claims his contract protects him from any financial responsibility in a multitude of lawsuits filed against him, including the wrongful death complaint filed by Hutchins’ widow.
Even without that clause, Baldwin was completely innocent in the “unthinkable tragedy,” according to the filing, which revealed he was paid $250,000 to star in and produce the low-budget movie.
“Hutchins described what she would like Baldwin to do with the placement of the gun … She directed Baldwin to hold the gun higher, to a point where it was directed toward her,” Baldwin’s filing states.
“In giving and following these instructions, Hutchins and Baldwin shared a core, vital belief: that the gun was ‘cold’ and contained no live rounds.
“Baldwin asked Hutchins whether she wanted to see him cock the gun, as the script required. She responded yes,” the filing stated.
Attorneys for Hutchins’ family accused Baldwin in a statement of “trying to avoid liability and accountability for his reckless actions,” CNN reported.
“Baldwin’s disclosure of personal texts with Matt Hutchins is irrelevant to his demand for arbitration and fails to demonstrate anything other than Hutchins’ dignity in his engagement with Baldwin,” the statement said.
“It is shameful that Baldwin claims Hutchins’ actions in filing a wrongful death lawsuit derailed the completion of ‘Rust.’ The only action that ended the film’s production was Baldwin’s killing of Halyna Hutchins,” the attorneys said, according to CNN.
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