The head armorer on the movie set where a crew member was fatally shot with what was supposed to be a prop gun claims she took all the basic steps to secure the gun that killed the cinematographer. However, the assistant director admitted the gun was not properly inspected before Alec Baldwin fired the fatal round.
TMZ obtained a search warrant which states Hannah Gutierrez-Reed told authorities she had checked the ammo that very day and there were no live rounds on set.
She went on to say the gun was locked up in a safe in a prop truck during the lunch break and taken out shortly before the fatal scene. The implication — she’s saying the gun appeared safe to her, because it wasn’t messed with it during lunch. She did, however, say there were a few people who had access to the safe.
Assistant director David Halls — the person who handed the weapon to Baldwin and called it a “cold gun” — confessed when she showed him the firearm before rehearsal he could only remember seeing 3 rounds. He admitted he should have checked all of the rounds, and doesn’t remember if Hannah spun the drum before she handed him the gun, and he, in turn, handed it to Baldwin.
This all points to a lapse of safety precautions on the set, and that’s something the District Attorney is now looking at in determining if criminal charges should be filed.
The D.A. isn’t ruling out charges for everyone involved. Authorities aren’t through with Baldwin and plan on interviewing him again as well as reviewing the employment history of both Halls and Gutierrez-Reed before making any final decisions.
That doesn’t bode well for Halls, who was fired from a previous job over safety issues. Gutierrez-Reed was a newbie in the business who only had one film under her belt as a head armorer.
