‘Rust’ Armorer Claims There Is A ‘Serious Problem’ With The Police Investigation
“Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed claims that there is a “serious problem” with the way that the Santa Fe police department is handling the shooting that happened on the set of the Western film last October.
“30 Rock” actor Alec Baldwin had been holding a gun when it discharged, firing a live round that injured director Joel Souza and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
The Santa Fe police department has been investigating the shooting since it occurred but has yet to file any criminal charges against Baldwin or Gutierrez-Reed, who was not present in the church when the shooting took place.
‘Rust’ Armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed Claims There Is A ‘Serious Problem’ With The Santa Fe Police Department’s Investigation
According to The Wrap, Gutierrez-Reed is not happy that the Santa Fe police department decided not to DNA test the live rounds on the bullets. She claims that the lack of DNA “raises a serious problem” in their investigation.
“The primary question in this case from the beginning has been where did the live rounds that ended up on the Rust set to come from?” Gutierrez-Reed said in a statement. “As can be seen from the attached emails, the Sheriff’s office made a conscious decision not to pursue this question at all by refusing to ask the FBI to test any of the rounds for fingerprints or DNA.”
She went on to say that, since law enforcement officials know “for certain” there were live rounds on set, “It is inconceivable that the Sheriff would not seek answers to this fundamental question and it raises a serious problem with the entire investigation.”
Along with her statement, she also attached an email chain that appeared to contain a conversation with Albuquerque attorney Jason Bowles, who represents Gutierrez-Reed, and Alexandria J. Hancock from the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office.
“Do you know why the FBI didn’t do any DNA testing on the rounds?” Bowles wrote to Hancock in the email, dated Thursday, Aug. 18 at 8:32 a.m. Less than an hour later, Hancock responded, “We discussed as a team what would make the most sense for the investigation. Given the fact the items were from movie sets, which had been handled over and over and over.”
However, it seems that Bowls agreed and said that it was still possible to obtain DNA from the rounds. Hancock replied, “Thank you for your input, however, we are done with testing at this time. We already know Hannah loaded the weapon that was used during the incident, that was her statement. We also know everything in question was handled by multiple people after the incident.”
Bowles asked Hancock to consider, noting, “This will be a very significant issue at trial if we get there.”
FBI Report Concludes That Alec Baldwin ‘Must Have’ Pulled The Trigger In The Shooting
The statement comes about a week after Santa Fe law enforcement officials revealed that they had received reports of FBI testing on the “Rust” shooting earlier this month.
Last Friday, ABC News published the findings of the FBI report, which conducted accidental discharge testing on the firearm, a .45 Long Colt caliber F.lli Pietta single-action revolver. Their testing found that the weapon could not have been fired without the trigger being pulled, according to the FBI report.
The report stated that the gun “could not be made to fire without a pull of the trigger” with the hammer in the quarter and half-cock positions. With the hammer fully cocked, the FBI says the gun “could not be made to fire without a pull of the trigger while the working internal components were intact and functional.”
The report continued to explain that, with the hammer de-cocked on a loaded chamber, the gun was able to detonate a primer “without a pull of the trigger when the hammer was struck directly,” which is reportedly normal for this type of revolver.
However, it directly contradicts the account that Alec Baldwin gave in an interview with ABC News last December, claiming that he never pulled the trigger on the gun. He turned over his cell phone voluntarily to aid in the investigation.
The Santa Fe police department is still continuing its investigation and no one has yet to be criminally charged in the death of Halyna Hutchins.
