Movie armourer had voiced concerns she was out of her depth

THE 24-year-old woman in charge of gun safety on the set of Rust had expressed doubts about being up to the job.

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, whose father is a legendary Hollywood gun expert, had recently finished work on The Old Way starring Nicolas Cage, her first movie as ‘head armourer’, and confessed on a podcast: ‘I was really nervous about it at first, and I almost didn’t take the job because I wasn’t sure if I was ready, but, doing it, like, it went really smoothly.

‘Dad has taught me everything but a lot of things I just kind of caught on by myself through observation, watching him do things or just knowing how the firearms work. He took me from being completely green and taught me everything I know so far and by all means, I am still learning.

‘I think loading blanks was the scariest thing to me because I was like, “Oh, I don’t know anything about it.”’ Ms Gutierrez-Reed was questioned by sheriffs at the scene of Thursday’s shooting and was seen handing over the gun, a vintage Colt, and a spent bullet casing.

She has not responded to calls for comment.

The Daily Beast cited a source as claiming that cost-cutting led producers to hire Ms GutierrezReed who was described as ‘inexperienced and green’.

Another person involved with Rust allegedly pinned the blame on assistant director Dave Halls, who handed the weapon that fired the fatal shot to Baldwin.

‘He’s supposed to be our last line of defence and he failed us,’ the source was reported as saying. ‘He’s the last person that’s supposed to look at that firearm.’ Crew members are alleged to have complained to Mr Halls about previous misfirings on set. ‘All of us yelled at him. These guys are irresponsible and shouldn’t be here,’ the Daily Beast reported one crew member as saying. ‘That should be automatic grounds for termination on a union film set, you should be gone.

‘The first time that gun went off without telling anybody that whole department should have been replaced immediately.’

Script supervisor Mamie Mitchell lashed out at Mr Halls when she telephoned the emergency services after the shooting. In the call, which was recorded, she said: ‘He’s supposed to check the guns. He’s responsible for what happened.’

A legal source involved in a civil case brought by the family of Brandon Lee, the son of martial arts icon Bruce Lee, who was accidentally shot on a movie set in 1993, said: ‘A civil suit could be in the $50 million to $100million range.

‘This was a young woman who was clearly held in high regard who was at the very start of what promised to be a highlylucrative career.’