Armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed Shown Pointing Gun Towards Head In 'Rust' Trial Footage

On Thursday, the jury continued to hear witnesses testifying in the case of former "Rust" armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who is charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

Although the gun was held by actor Alec Baldwin, prosecutors presented a witness on Wednesday who alleged that she was the one who had loaded the gun that he was holding when it went off. However, the defense team strongly hit back at that statement, arguing that it was not captured on the extensive footage shown throughout the trial.

In addition to involuntary manslaughter charges, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed is also charged with tampering with evidence after prosecutors alleged that she tried to give someone a bag of cocaine on the day that Hutchins was killed, thus impeding the police investigation. The rookie armorer has pleaded not guilty to both charges.

On Monday, the jury heard testimony from dolly grip Ross Addiego, who recalled tending to director Joel Souza and his injuries immediately after Hutchins was shot. The following day, the jury heard testimony from Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Heather Jarrell, who testified that she did not rule the act a homicide. However, she did tell the jury, “Looking at the material available to me through law enforcement reports it was apparent to me there was no obvious intent to cause death. It doesn't mean there was not negligence.”

On Wednesday, the jury heard from Sante Fe County Sheriff Detective Alexandria Hancock. In body cam footage from the day of the shooting, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed said that she “can’t believe” that Alec Baldwin was the one who was holding the gun when it went off, calling it “so f---ed.” Her lawyers also heavily questioned an assertion from the detective saying that Hannah Gutierrez-Reed admitted to loading the gun, as it was not shown in the body cam footage, law enforcement interviews, or any of the extensive footage shown throughout the trial.

On Thursday morning, the first witness to testify was Hollywood armorer Bryan Carpenter. Carpenter said that there were only three people on the set who had the ability to bring production to a stop, and that was the armorer. He insisted that armorers have to be firm when safety guidelines were not being followed, as production tends to rush shooting a film in order to reduce costs. The prosecution was trying to establish that Gutierrez-Reed should have used her on-set authority to slow down production to follow safety standards.

However, it is worth noting that Hannah Gutierrez-Reed had only worked on one film set before "Rust."

Bryan Carpenter later watched footage taken from the "Rust" set and commented on multiple safety issues that he noticed. One shot featured an actor carrying a long shotgun with the muzzle pointed at several people as he walked through the set, as per The Independent. Mr. Carpenter said that he broke the "third rule" of firearm handling and should have had the gun pointed at the ground. He told the jury that if he had been an armorer on that film set, he would have asked the actor to point the muzzle toward the ground or taken the gun from the actor.

In the same scene, a background actor can be seen pointing a gun at two other actors. The prosecution asked Carpenter if he noticed Hannah Gutierrez-Reed in any of the footage; however, he stated that he did not. The prosecution then presented a video clip that showed the rookie armorer holding a shotgun. The stick was on the ground but the barrel was pointed upward, toward her face and neck. Carpenter testified that the position violated basic gun safety rules.

Just before the court broke for lunch, the armorer's attorney Jason Bowles told the court that not only was Hannah Gutierrez-Reed the armorer on the set, but that she also served on prop duties as well. With all of her various responsibilities, Bowles maintained that she was only a "part-time" armorer and could not be responsible for all aspects of the position. Carpenter said that he would have wanted two armorers on the "Rust" production, describing it as a "gun-heavy set."

The prosecution later asked Carpenter if he had to learn basic firearm safety while on the job or if he was taught the rules for gun safety before he began working. “When you first started out as an armorer, would you have held a double barrel shotgun pointed at your own head?” prosecutor Kari Morrissey asked, to which he replied, "I would not," in response to the video that showed the rookie armorer standing with a shotgun barrel pointed toward her head.