Nov. 4 (UPI) — Attorneys for the armorer assigned to the set of the movie “Rust” said Wednesday they believe sabotage may have been involved in a fatal shooting on the set last month, when actor Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun, killing the movie’s cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
Jason Bowles, who is representing armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed with Robert Gorence, made the accusation during an interview on NBC’s “Today,” pointing the finger at employees who walked off the set just before the shooting over a contract and payment dispute.
“I believe that somebody who would do that would want to sabotage the set, want to prove a point, want to say that they’re disgruntled, they’re unhappy,” Bowles said on the morning show. And we know that people had walked off the set the day before.”
Gorence said their client had to leave the firearms unattended for that two-hour time period because she was working two jobs on the film. It was previously reported that assistant director Dave Halls handed the gun to Baldwin and signaled that it did not have bullets.
“She had another duty and responsibility as key props assistant, and so she had gone to do that, right after she had provided the handgun to Mr. Halls,” Gorence said on Today. “So Mr. Halls took custody of the weapon and at that point, she was doing her other duties as key prop assistant.”
Local authorities continued to investigate the shooting Wednesday after an attorney for Halls denied that he handed Baldwin the gun that fired the fatal shot.
“This idea my client grabbed the gun and handed it to Baldwin absolutely did not happen,” Lisa Torraco told Fox News. She later backed away from the statement and said Halls “doesn’t know if he handed the gun to Alec Baldwin.”
