Sharpshooter and movie consultant Thell Reed said he’s not concerned about the possibility that his 24-year-old daughter, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, could go to jail.
Gutierrez-Reed was in charge of all weapons on the set of the film Rust.
On Oct. 21, actor Alec Baldwin was rehearsing on the Rust set at the Bonanza Creek Ranch near Santa Fe, New Mexico, when he fired a live round from an antique Colt revolver, fatally striking 42-year-old director of photography Halyna Hutchins, and injuring the director, 48-year-old Joel Souza.
Baldwin claimed he didn’t pull the trigger. “I let go of the hammer — bang, the gun goes off,” the actor recalled to ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.
“The sheriff’s department will get to the bottom of this. I’m not worried about that at all,” Thell Reed told ABC News’ Kaylee Hartung in an exclusive interview that aired on Good Morning America.
Thell Reed worked as an armorer or weapons specialist on the set of a number of films, such as Tombstone, Django: Unchained, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
According to the sheriff’s office, two other people had handled or inspected the loaded gun before it discharged — the film’s armorer, Gutierrez-Reed, and the first assistant director, Dave Halls.
Gutierrez-Reed’s attorney, Jason Bowles, said his client had no idea where the live rounds came from and that she was not in the church where rehearsal was taking place.
“She had spun the cylinder, she had given it to Halls, she had shown him each of the six rounds…He was inside the church then, Hannah was outside the church having to do her prop duties.”
Thell Reed said he “didn’t like” that his daughter was having to take on both roles of armorer and prop assistant.
“That one time they should have had her on set, she would’ve rechecked that gun,” he told ABC News. “If there was a live round placed there, she would’ve found it.”
It was only the second movie that Gutierrez-Reed was brought on to serve as the lead armorer, but her father insists her inexperience wasn’t a factor. “She didn’t need any more training, she’s got me,” Reed told ABC News.
“She knows what to do,” he added. “She does the job as good as I do now.”
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