Lawyers for Rust armorer accuse police of ‘misleading the public’ by releasing investigation footage

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Lawyers for Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed have accused Santa Fe Sheriff Adan Mendoza of ‘misleading the public’ by implying the young weapons worker brought or fired live ammo on another movie set before the accidental death of Halyna Hutchins.

In a letter penned by Gutierrez Reed’s attorneys obtained by DailyMail.com, the legal eagles asked Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies to reprimand Sheriff Adan Mendoza for implying Reed was responsible for Hutchins’ death in an interview with the Today show Tuesday.

In the interview, the lawman said his office was still investigating the staffer due to text messages found on Gutierrez Reed’s phone that he said suggested the armorer – one of three people to handle the inexplicably loaded gun before handing it to leading man Alec Baldwin – had illegally brought and fired live ammo on the set of The Old Way, another upcoming Western, starring Nicolas Cage.

‘There was text messages with information that was concerning based on the fact that live ammo was spoken about and was possibly used on a prior movie set,’ Mendoza said in the interview, addressing a trove of documents chronicling his office’s investigation into the incident. 

‘That was just a few months before the Rust movie set and production began, so that is concerning.’

Gutierrez Reed’s lawyers quickly fired back early Friday morning. 

‘Sheriff Mendoza, without any evidence, implied that based on the text exchange, live rounds may have been fired on the prior set by Hannah,’ they wrote in the letter obtained by DailyMail.com. 

‘This was recklessly false, and there is no evidence to support this misstatement.’ 

It is illegal to bring ammunition to any film set. 

In a recorded interview released by the sheriff’s office Monday, Kenney told detectives, ‘She wanted to shoot live ammo out of the guns, the TV/ movie guns.

‘And I said no effing way, obviously,’ he said in the footage. 

Gutierrez Reed has since sued Kenney, blaming him for the live rounds.

Then, on Tuesday, after releasing the footage and thousands of unredacted text messages from the young armorer’s phone, Mendoza revealed to Today that they were investigating Gutierrez Reed.  

The massive evidence dump saw hours of never-seen interrogation footage of the film’s staff – including both Gutierrez Reed, then 24, and Baldwin – hundreds of pages of police reports, and even video of Hutchins in her final moments as she succumbed to her injuries.

But perhaps the most damaging information was a series of old text messages released by the sheriff, provided to investigators by Seth Kenney, a veteran armorer and the film’s ammunition supplier.

In the messages, Gutierrez Reed reportedly asked him for live ammunition to use on the set of the Western – months before she began work on Rust – so he could fire live rounds through a Springfield Trapdoor – a 19th century rifle.  

Her lawyer’s letter also said: ‘Hannah, as armorer, is required to know the functionality of weapons and to have good working knowledge of their features, including their safe handling. 

‘In the texts, Hannah asked Seth if she could fire live rounds through a “trapdoor” meaning a historical weapon, a Springfield Trapdoor, which is a type of firearm dating back to the late 1800s,’ the attorneys explain. 

‘Hannah wanted to fire the historical weapon, after working hours and off the production set, at the end of production and not on set. 

‘Seth stated that live rounds shouldn’t be fired through prop weapons, and Hannah listened, and she never fired a live round through the Trapdoor.’

The statement then asserts: ‘Hannah has never brought live rounds on any movie set nor has she ever fired any live rounds on any set on which she has worked, including the Rust set.’

The attorneys further argued that Gutierrez Reed’s reputation has been tarnished as a result of Mendoza’s word, and that Mendoza may be misleading the public over who’s responsible for the shooting that killed cinematographer Hutchins.

The attorneys also said that they were concerned that the focus had now shifted from the issue of gun safety on the ill-fated films’ set to their client.

They say they are worried the release has tainted public opinion of the highly publicized tragedy, and say it distracts from the release of a safety report issued just days ago by the state, which blamed Rust management for the shooting and unsafe conditions on set. 

The release of the trove of evidence is also being blasted by Hutchins’ family, who were outraged by the footage of Hutchins’ last moments, and the fact that the late woman’s address was not redacted.

The massive evidence dump from the Santa Fe County’s Sheriff’s Office captured a distraught and confused Gutierrez Reed moments after the fatal shot went off and police arrived on the Santa Fe set.

One clip captured a distraught Gutierrez Reed – one of three people to handle the firearm before passing it to Baldwin – moments after the shooting, complaining bout her ‘f**ked’ career,’ branding herself a ‘f**king failure’ to officers while vowing to not show her face in the industry again. 

One clip captured a distraught Gutierrez Reed – one of three people to handle the firearm before passing it to Baldwin – moments after the shooting, complaining bout her ‘f**ked’ career,’ branding herself a ‘f**king failure’ to officers while vowing to not show her face in the industry again.

In the footage, a visibly upset Reed is asked if she’s the film’s armorer by police.’ 

‘I am, or at least I was,’ she responds, before adding, ‘welcome to the worst day of my life.’ 

A female police officer then goes with Reed to the restroom, where she is heard saying: ‘I can’t believe Alec Baldwin was holding the gun. That’s so f**ked.’ 

Reed then asks the officers if she can go to a police vehicle away from the rest of the crew, adding ‘I just want to get the f**k out of here and never show my face in this industry again.’ 

She then adds: ‘I’m the only female armorer in the game and I just f**ked up my whole entire career’ before calling herself a ‘f**king failure.’

 Other clips showed Reed being interrogated by cops, where she conceded she was ‘totally’ in charge of weapons on the New Mexico set, and said that ‘maybe there was just perhaps a bad round in that box’ that ended up being fired by Baldwin.

 ‘I check the guns and I load the guns and I hand the guns to the actor,’ Gutierrez Reed told lawmen during the November interview.

‘We went to set, we had the guns on set. I dummied the guns up with the dummy rounds. Nothing happened and then we came back from lunch.’ 

‘There was only one round that went off, and it must have went through [director Joel Souza] somehow and f–king hit Halyna,’ she said of the late mom-of-one.

‘I’m like flabbergasted by this,’ she insisted in the interview. ‘I can’t f**king imagine how this happened.’ 

Friday morning, Sheriff Mendoza told NBC News he was not commenting on the case any further – and as the blame game continues, the Santa Fe DA is set to have the final say regarding any criminal charges. 

Mendoza’s media dump, meanwhile, came out of left-field – with over 200 pages of police reports, other videos, and personal information, including phone number and addresses and social security numbers, released to the general public. 

The material was released before charges have been brought against anyone involved in the shooting. 

Former prosecutor for the LA DA’s office and criminal defense attorney Joshua Ritter told the Los Angeles Times that the amount of information Santa Fe police released was ‘just something that you don’t see.’ 

‘We’re not talking about a few hand-picked reports or videos, but it’s almost like they’ve released their entire file and it’s just remarkable to me,’ he said. ‘They’ve almost invited public opinion to weigh in on whether or not they think criminal charges are strong or not.’ 

Lisa Torraco, the attorney representing the movie, also disagreed with the release of the information, stating: ‘We are very very disappointed the sheriff released personal information.’ 

The distressing clip of Halyna Hutchins’ final moments – including paramedics crying ‘Halyna, stay with us!’ was released as part of a trove of evidence shared by Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office Monday.

Hutchins, who died aged 42, could be seen unconscious of the floor of a church set as emergency responders worked to save her after she was shot on the New Mexico set of the western in October 2021.

She appeared to be unconscious throughout, having been shot through her right armpit, with the bullet that struck her later emerging again through the top of her shoulder.

Not much can be heard other than encouragement for Hutchins and the paramedics barking instructions at one another.

In another video, the crew from Rust, including Baldwin, can be heard asking how Hutchins is doing.

Baldwin can be heard asking ‘what’s her story?’ in reference to Hutchins and being told things are ‘a little bit rougher.’

Someone can be heard asking if the condition is life-threatening and the response is: ‘enough to get air-lifted.’

The investigation files also include rehearsal clips that show Baldwin in costume as he practices a quick-draw maneuver with a gun. 

The tapes’ release followed the release of a report by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that blasted producers of the film, bizarrely leading Baldwin – who served on the movie’s production team – to post on social media that he’d been exonerated over the death of Hutchins.

The actor issued the statement shortly after New Mexican Occupational Health and Safety Bureau officials levied the maximum fine against the producers of Rust, the western movie on whose set Halyna Hutchins was shot and killed by Baldwin in October 2021.

Executive producers were subsequenbtly hit with a $136,793 film – the maximum available. Baldwin himself was a producer, but highlighted a passage in the investigation which said that he was involved in the script and casting – but not safety procedures.

Baldwin’s statement wrote: ‘We are grateful to the New Mexico Occupational and Safety Bureau for investigating this matter,’ the statement from Baldwin read.

‘We appreciate that the report exonerates Mr. Baldwin by making clear that he believed the gun held only dummy rounds. 

‘Additionally, the report recognizes that Mr. Baldwin’s authority on the production was limited to approving script changes and creative casting. 

‘Mr. Baldwin had no authority over the matters that were the subject of the Bureau’s findings of violations, and we are pleased that the New Mexico officials have clarified these critical issues. 

‘We are confident that the individuals identified in the report will be held accountable for this tragedy.’ 

In their report, officials cited a slew of ‘willful and serious’ safety violations that led them to dishing out the fine – the maximum sum for such safety infractions – and criticized film brass for failing to follow industry safety guidelines.

Wednesday afternoon, Baldwin, who has argued that he did not know the gun was loaded when it was handed to him by the film’s assistant director David Halls, issued a statement that touted the scathing report as a victory.

He has since claimed that he did not pull the trigger of the gun that fired, and that it went off by accident in his hand. 

In Baldwin’s statement, his PR team cited how officials only named Halls and another staffer, Property Master Sarah Zachary – two of three employees to handle the gun before it was passed to Baldwin – as responsible for safety slip-ups that resulted in Hutchins’ death, ignoring assertions that the company as a whole should be held ‘fully accountable’ for the failures.  

The fine, the maximum allowed, comes after a six-month investigation by the bureau into the circumstances leading up to the shooting, which saw Baldwin fire a round at Hutchins with a prop gun that inexplicably contained live ammunition on October 21. 

The actor, who was also a producer on the unfinished film, has argued that he did not pull the trigger and has no idea how a live bullet made its way onto the Santa Fe set.    

In the filing, officials wrote that the makers of Rust – which includes Baldwin – showed ‘plain indifference to recognized hazards associated with use of firearms on set,’ revealing that film brass ignored complaints from staffers regarding gun safety following ‘two firearms-related incidents’ five days before the fatal shooting. 

The report described the incidents as ‘misfires,’ which reportedly occurred on the film’s set October 16, 2021. 

Officials revealed that Rust Movie Productions failed to follow up on those claims, circumventing industry-implemented safety procedures ‘which likely would have prevented the accident from occurring,’ the filing states.

The report concluded that management for Rust Movie Productions – which would include Baldwin – ‘knew that firearm safety procedures were not being followed on set and demonstrated plain indifference to employee safety by failing to review work practices and take corrective action.’

The agency went on to declare that because of those infractions and shortcuts by staff – including those by Assistant Director Halls, whom regulators noted handed Baldwin the loaded gun without consulting with on-set weapons specialists – the production company must be held ‘fully accountable’ for Hutchins’ death.  

Property Master Zachary also failed to ‘work in conjunction with the production’s designated Safety Representative to assure that the following standards,’ the report revealed. 

The report also said that weapons specialists were barred from making decisions about additional firearm safety training. 

‘Through our investigation, we determined that Rust Productions’ failures were both serious and willful,’ regulators wrote.

‘It was the employers’ obligation to follow national standards, and that did not happen on the set of Rust.

‘This was a terrible tragedy and our thoughts are with the victim – a mother, a wife, an experienced cinematographer and a well respected member of the film community. Today we continue to extend our thoughts and prayers to her loved ones.

‘While I realize no fine can compensate for the loss of life, we are holding Rust Productions fully accountable.’ 

Officials said Rust Movie Productions must pay the sum or face legal action.    

‘What we had, based on our investigators’ findings, was a set of obvious hazards to employees regarding the use of firearms and management’s failure to act upon those obvious hazards,’ Bob Genoway, bureau chief of the New Mexico regulator, said Wednesday of the OSHA report.  

In a statement following the report’s release, Rust Movie Productions spokesman Stefan Friedman rebuked the bureau’s findings. 

‘While we appreciate OSHA’s time and effort in its investigation, we disagree with its findings and plan to appeal. Our thoughts and prayers remain with Halyna’s family,’ Friedman said.

Baldwin said in a December interview with ABC News that he was pointing the gun at Hutchins at her instruction on the New Mexico set of the Western film when it went off without his pulling the trigger.

The new occupational safety report confirms that a large-caliber revolver was handed to Baldwin by an assistant director, David Halls, without consulting with on-set weapons specialists during or after the gun was loaded. 

Regulators note that Halls also served as safety coordinator and that he was present and witnessed two accidental discharges of rifles on set, and that he and other managers who knew of the misfires took no investigative, corrective or disciplinary action. 

Crew members expressed surprise and discomfort.

‘The Safety Coordinator was present on set and took no direct action to address safety concerns,’ the report states. ‘Management was provided with multiple opportunities to take corrective actions and chose not to do so. 

‘As a result of these failures, Director Joel Souza and cinematographer Halyna Hutchins were severely injured. Halyna Hutchins succumbed to her injuries.’

A spokesman for Rust Movie Productions did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. An attorney for Baldwin was not immediately available.

James Kenney, secretary of the Environment Department that oversees occupational safety, said the agency dedicated 1,500 staff hours to its investigation, examined hundreds of documents and conducted at least a dozen interviews with cast and crew members.

Investigators found production managers placed tight limits on resources for a small team that controlled weapons on set and failed to address concerns about a shotgun left unattended twice.

The report also revealed that the third person to handle the gun before Baldwin, Reed, the daughter of a sharpshooter and consultant to film productions, was limited to eight paid days as an armorer to oversee weapons and training, and was assigned otherwise to lighter duties as a props assistant. 

As her time as an armorer ran out, Reed aired concerns over firearm safety procedure’s on the film’s set, but was rebuffed, the report said.

Safety investigators also note that the production company did not develop a process to ensure live rounds of ammunition were not brought on set, in violation of industry safety protocols. 

Safety meetings were conducted, but not every day weapons were used, as required.

Kenney said the separate investigations into possible criminal charges are still underway.