‘Rust’ armorer says barely checked gun before fatal shooting: police

LOS ANGELES - The woman in charge of the gun fatally fired by Alec Baldwin on the set of “Rust” told police she “didn’t really check it too much” immediately before the tragedy. Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, armorer on the low-budget Western, spoke to investigators as they probed how live rounds ended up on the New Mexico film set last month, leading to the death of Halyna Hutchins. Cinematographer Hutchins was shot and killed as Baldwin rehearsed a scene in which he fires a gun at the camera. According to an affidavit released Tuesday, Gutierrez-Reed told police she had loaded the Colt .45 with five dummy rounds before a lunch break. After lunch, the weapon was retrieved from a safe, and Gutierrez-Reed added a final round before handing it to another crew member. Moments later, she heard a gun shot from inside the set. Gutierrez-Reed said she “didn’t really check it too much” because the weapon had been locked up at lunch. “We had the gun the whole time before that, and nothing happened, and I wasn’t in there, and they weren’t even supposed to be pulling the hammer back,” she added.

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