Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was identified as the armorer who was responsible for guns on the set of the movie “Rust,” the film where actor Alec Baldwin accidentally shot and killed Director of Photography Halyina Hutchins and wounded Director Joel Souza.
Gutierrez-Reed is 24 years old. She was described as “inexperienced and green” to the Daily Beast. Since the Baldwin shooting, various stories have emerged alleging that Gutierrez-Reed raised concerns on a previous movie set.
She was the person who, according to an affidavit, “placed three prop guns on a cart outside where the scene was being filmed,” before an assistant director gave it to Baldwin to use in a scene, Daily Beast reported.
The shooting occurred at Bonanza Creek Ranch, near Santa Fe, New Mexico. Reports have emerged of a series of problems and tensions on the set, including about conditions for workers, before the shooting, which is under investigation by authorities. No one has been charged.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Gutierrez-Reed Said the ‘Best Part’ of Her Job Was Showing People ‘How Safe’ Guns Can Be’
24 year old Hannah Gutierrez-Reed the set armorer that was hired by Rust Movie Productions and is responsible for all guns on the Alec Baldwin Western Film ‘Rust’ in New Mexico has deleted her TikTok and Twitter and also her Facebook and Instagram accounts.
Gutierrez-Reed spoke about gun safety on a podcast.
“I think the best part about my job is just showing people who are normally kind of freaked out by guns how safe they can be and how they’re not really problematic unless put in the wrong hands,” Reed said on “Voices of the West” podcast.
In that podcast, she also described loading blanks into prop guns.
“You have to like look at the front of it and determine which one is the blank, if it’s dummied up. That’s how I tell at least,” she explained. “Every movie I’m learning new and new things — it’s all very quick.”
NBC News described her as a “former model.” She “took the spent casing out” after the Baldwin shooting and gave the prop gun in question to investigators, according to NBC.
“I used to do modeling a bit, and then I decided modeling didn’t really have any sustenance and people didn’t really see you for anything more than face value, so I decided to get more into this line of work,” she said in the podcast.
2. Gutierrez-Reed’s Father Is a Well-Known Armorer
Working on movie sets runs in Gutierrez-Reed’s family. Her father is Thell Reed, a well-known Hollywood armorer.
According to his IMDB profile, Thell Reed was born and raised in Downey, California.
The site says that his father ran BBQ restaurants and was a “gun enthusiast” who gave Thell Reed “a pair of match Colt .45s and told him to ‘Make a living with them!'”
#美人だと思う銃を貼れ
Thell Reed and Guns ♠️♣️
西部劇のガンアクションを
最高にエキサイティングに仕上げる男
Thell Reed began winning fast draw tournaments; he drew the attention of Gene Autry, who took him on a Wild West Tour. After that point, he started working on movies, including Gunsmoke, L.A. Confidential, Tombstone, The Quick and the Dead, Proof of Life, and Flags of Our Fathers.
IMDB reported that Thell Reed has helped famous actors like Russell Crowe and Brad Pitt learn how to pull off “realistic gun handling.” Her father trained her, Daily Beast reported.
3. Gutierrez-Reed Was a Costume Assistant & Armorer on a Nicolas Cage Film, Where There Were Concerns About Her Experience Level & Gun Handling, Causing Cage to Storm Off Set
Listed as Hanna Gutierrez on IMDB, there are only three credits listed for Gutierrez=Reed: armorer on Rust, costume assistant on Milennium Bigs, and head armorer of The Old Way. The latter is a western starring Nicolas Cage.
She said Rust was her second movie as an armorer in the podcast.
Daily Beast reported that concerns emerged about her experience on the Cage film set. Daily Beast reported that she “allegedly gave a gun to an 11-year-old actress without checking it properly.”
“She was a bit careless with the guns, waving it around every now and again,” a source told Daily Beast. “There were a couple times she was loading the blanks and doing it in a fashion that we thought was unsafe.”
She told the podcast she almost turned down the Cage film job because she wasn’t sure she was ready.
According to the New York Post, Cage “walked off set screaming at Gutierrez-Reed” for allegedly firing a gun without warning twice. “Make an announcement, you just blew my f****** eardrums out!” Cage yelled at her, according to the movie’s key grip’s interview with the Post. He said he told the assistant director “she needs to be let go.”
4. Gutierrez-Reed Worked for the City of Flagstaff as a Documentary Filmmaker; Her Insurance Company Once Paid Money in a Fatal Crash
‘Rust’ armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed once gave unchecked gun to 11-year-old actor: report t.co/QtjqHhfr6j
According to an old LinkedIn profile for her under the name Hannah Gutierrez, Gutierrez-Reed was “Film Major at NAU. I work for Synthfire media and documentary work on the side with the city of Flagstaff,” she wrote at that time.
She wrote that she was a documentary filmmaker for more than two years for the City of Flagstaff, a videographer for Sunth Fire part-time, an armorer for Yellowstone Film Ranch and a studio camera operator for Northern Arizona Today, the latter of which was an internship.
At Yellowstone, she described her duties as, “Loading firearms with appropriately sized blanks. Ensuring gun safety on set along with instructing actors on how to use their guns.”
She graduated from Northern Arizona University in 2020, where she studied creative media and Cinematography and Film/Video Production.
According to Radar Online, Gutierrez-Reed’s insurer paid money to the family of a crash that killed a man named Tyler Dyer. Her boyfriend Aaron Butcher had borrowed Gutierrez-Reed’s motorcycle. She was accused of seeing the men drinking heavily before giving her boyfriend the keys to her motorcycle even though he wasn’t supposed to drive a vehicle without a breathalyzer due to a prior drunk driving arrest.
5. Baldwin Shot Hutchins & the Movie’s Director During a Scene Rehearsal
FacebookHalyna Hutchins.
Alec Baldwin killed his film’s director of photography Halyna Hutchins and wounded the movie’s director when a prop gun discharged, according to a local sheriff in New Mexico.
The prop gun misfired, according to Deadline, when Baldwin was holding it on the New Mexico set of the movie “Rust.” According to the Santa Fe New Mexican, Baldwin was questioned by authorities and seen in tears. The newspaper reported that authorities were trying “to determine if the incident was an accident.”
“There was an accident today on the New Mexico set of ‘Rust involving the misfire of a prop gun with blanks,” one of the film’s producers said in a statement to ABC News. “Production has been halted for the time being. The safety of our cast and crew remains our top priority.”
Pretty incredible photo of actor Alec Baldwin from Santa Fe New Mexican in aftermath of today’s movie set tragedy.
t.co/7OBb0PKQrm
A news release from the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office says that deputies “were dispatched to the Bonanza Creek Ranch movie set of the western ‘Rust,’ October 21, 2021, when a 911 caller reported a shooting on the set.” According to Variety, Baldwin, a co-producer on the movie, plays “infamous outlaw Rust, whose 13-year-old grandson is convicted of an accidental murder.”
#BREAKING: @santafesheriff investigating incident at
#Rust movie set on Bonanza Creek Ranch near Santa Fe. Pic from @KOB4 #Chopper4 shows an old church set blocked off, and set security confirms its lockdown. Other pic of Rust cast/crew.
The sheriff’s office “confirms that two individuals were shot on the set of Rust. Halyna Hutchins, 42, director of photography and Joel Souza, 48, director, were shot when a prop firearm was discharged by Alec Baldwin, 68, producer and actor.” Hutchins died in the incident.
“There are no words to convey my shock and sadness regarding the tragic incident that took the life of Halyna Hutchins, a wife, mother and deeply admired colleague of ours,” Baldwin wrote on Twitter. “I am in touch with her husband, offering my support to him and his family. My heart is broken for her husband, their son, and all who knew and loved Halyna.”
1-
There are no words to convey my shock and sadness regarding the tragic accident that took the life of Halyna Hutchins, a wife, mother and deeply admired colleague of ours. I’m fully cooperating with the police investigation to address how this tragedy occurred and
In 1993, actor Brandon Lee, the son of Bruce Lee, was also killed in a prop gun accident on the set of a movie, “The Crow.” According to Biography.com, in that case, a bullet had become stuck in a prop gun that was only supposed to fire blanks. It’s not yet clear what specifically led to the prop gun mishap that ended Hutchins’ life.
The New Mexican reported that affidavits show Baldwin was told the prop gun was a “cold gun” when he was handed it by an assistant director, David Halls, who told police he did not realize it was loaded. Hutchins was shot in the chest, and Souza, who was standing behind her, in the shoulder, the newspaper reported, adding that a union official claimed the gun had a “live round.” The newspaper reported that the “cart of prop guns” was handled by “Hannah Gutierrez, an armorer.”
In a news release, the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office said Hutchins was “transported, via helicopter, to University of New Mexico Hospital where she was pronounced dead by medical personnel. Mr. Souza was transported by ambulance to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center where he is undergoing treatment for his injuries.”
The investigation “remains open and active. No charges have been filed in regard to this incident. Witnesses continue to be interviewed by detectives,” the release said.
It’s not yet clear whether there is any criminal culpability. “Deputies say the incident happened when a prop gun was discharged on #Rust set – looking into how and what type of projectile was discharged,” tweeted Tessa Mentus, KOB4 evening anchor.
You can read more about Hutchins here. See some of her work here.
On her Facebook page, Hutchins described herself as the “Director of Photography at ICG: International Cinematographers Guild (IATSE Local 600).”
She wrote that she “studied Cinematography at AFI Conservatory,” lived in Los Angeles, California, and was from Kyiv, Ukraine. According to her IMDB profile, Hutchins was “known for her work on Archenemy (2020), Darlin’ (2019) and Blindfire (2020).”
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