The gunsmith of the set, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, 24, could also be held to account. According to depositions gathered by investigators, the young woman – who herself admitted to having little experience in the podcast Voices of the West shortly before the drama – claimed she had safely secured the guns to be used for Alec Baldwin’s rehearsal when the team left the set for lunch, but not the ammunition. Dave Halls for his part testified that the gunsmith had shown him the weapon brought on the set after the break and said to remember having seen three “dummy” cartridges in the barrel. “He admits he should have checked them all but didn’t“, writes an investigator in his report.
However, the searches carried out on the set resulted in the seizure of 500 cartridges, dummy or blank, among which also seem to be live ammunition, which has yet to be confirmed by forensic analyzes, said the sheriff. Remember that live bullets are totally prohibited on set by the very strict rules in force in the film industry, precisely to prevent this kind of accident. The fatal bullet of Alec Baldwin, who ended his race in the shoulder of director Joel Souza, injured during the shooting, will also be assessed.
The investigators did not refer to it but the specialized site The Wrap asserts, citing sources close to the filming, that some members of the crew had used the revolver in question to fire live ammunition at cans of beer just hours before the accident …