Featured Image Courtesy Fox News
The situation with the shooting on the set of Alec Baldwin’s Rust film production is turning uglier and uglier. If I could give any of the involved parties some advice it would be this: you and your lawyers should be out a contrite, sympathetic statement and then shut up. Disappear. Don’t get into detailed spats and public announcements of who is wrong. Stay of social media.
It doesn’t seem like they’re going to heed that advice, however.
Even Hannah Gutierrez Reed’s attorneys are making public statement faux pas that indicate they may be way out of their league here. Gutierrez Reed is the armorer for the production of Rust. It’s literally her job to ensure that she knows what is loaded in every single firearm on set, she’s supposed to check the “props” before they are in the hands of actors. Yet her lawyers are implicating everyone else in the public sphere… not the courtroom. See the statement below:
First Hannah would like to extend her deepest and most sincere condolences to the family and friends of Halyna. She was an inspirational woman in film who Hannah looked up to. She also offers her thoughts and prayers for a speedy recovery to Joel. Hannah is devastated and completely beside herself over the events that have transpired.
She would like to address some untruths that have been told to the media, which have falsely portrayed her and slandered her. Safety is Hannah’s number one priority on set. Ultimately this set would never have been compromised if live ammo were not introduced. Hannah has no idea where the live rounds came from. Hannah and the prop master gained control over the guns and she never witnessed anyone shoot live rounds with these guns and nor would she permit that. They were locked up every night and at lunch and there’s no way a single one of them was unaccounted for or being shot by crew members. Hannah still, to this day, has never had an accidental discharge. The first one on this set was the prop master and the second was a stunt man after Hannah informed him his gun was hot with blanks.
Hannah was hired on two positions on this film, which made it extremely difficult to focus on her job as an armorer. 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 whole production set became unsafe due to various factors, including lack of safety meetings. This was not the fault of Hannah.
Hannah and her legal team will address more of these rumors and the whole incident in an upcoming statement next week.
Okay, so a couple of things here. It’s not a good look for the armorer on set to declare she has no idea where live ammunition came from. It’s literally her job to make sure there are no live rounds in the gun at the moment she hands it to an actor. But then the lawyers go two steps beyond the issue and declare that there’s going to be another public statement made next week.
Dear Hannah, you don’t need public statements. You need to shut up and hire better lawyers. Given the squalor of an apartment you live in (which Daily Mail UK found you in), you’re going to be outclassed legally by Baldwin. Making statements this early serves no purpose for a poor, young want-to-be model, except to shape public opinion that will have no effect on whether you go to jail.
Image From Fox News Article
But the blame game has begun…
Now we’re hearing that there’s a fourth person who handled the gun, and other guns on set. And apparently this prop manager, Sarah Zachry, had the combination to the safe. Wonder who is putting that information out into the press?
Meanwhile, the Assistant Director David Halls is clearly pointing his finger at Hannah Gutierrez Reed, making his claim to the police that usually there’s no live ammunition in the guns he hands to actors. Usually. You think he didn’t ponder that statement before making it?
“I check the barrel for obstructions, most of the time there’s no live fire, [Hannah] opens the hatch and spins the drum, and I say cold gun on set.” — David Halls
And as for Alec Baldwin, would you like to guess who he is blaming?
Well, of course, he’s also on social media posting stuff at a time when any attorney worth their money would tell you to “shut up”. He’s retweeting news articles that indicate David Halls was in the wrong.
Before he handed a revolver that he had declared “cold” to Alec Baldwin on the set of the film “Rust,” Dave Halls, an assistant director, told a detective he should have inspected each round in each chamber, according to an affidavit. But he did not. https://t.co/flCONhaEqO
— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 27, 2021
So if you’re wanting to know how a woman was shot on set of a movie in which firearms were apparently being used to shoot beer cans during off-hours, look no further than how the four people involved are responding to her death. The armorer is blaming the prop manager, while claiming she’ll make more public statements next week. The assistant director is blaming the armorer to police in a roundabout way. The lead actor and owner of the entire production is blaming the assistant director. And so far the only person who seems to have the sense to stay quiet is Sarah Zachry, who we didn’t even know about until a third police warrant.
But Alec Baldwin is dressing all in black while vacationing with his family, so you know he feels bad.
Image Courtesy: TMZ
Good job, Alex. You really know how to disappear and stay quiet for a while. Luckily, you hired people just as bad at this for the movie. Unfortunately, it cost a woman a life and could have killed even more.
