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Previous boss of 'Rust' armorer defended her work, but admitted being worried about her lack of experience

Prop gun, 'Rust' movie
A stock photo of a Western-style firearm. DAVID MCNEW/AFP via Getty Images
  • Concerns have been raised about the armorer on the set of "Rust" since a worker was fatally shot.

  • A former colleague said Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was inexperienced but professional on an earlier movie.

  • He told the LA Times he was "stymied" by the on-set shooting.

A former boss of the armorer on the set of "Rust" praised her abilities, but has said her lack of experience was a concern when he worked with her, according to the Los Angeles Times.

24-year-old Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the movie's armorer, has not spoken publicly since cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was fatally shot on set by Alec Baldwin on Thursday.

But Jeffrey W. Crow, who supervised Gutierrez-Reed as the armorer on "The Old Way," told the LA Times about his time working with her.

A picture of the cinematographer Halyna Hutchins who was killed Thursday on the set of the film "Rust."
Halyna Hutchins. Halyna Hutchins

Crow called her "an exceptionally young, up-and-coming, very eager and talented armorer," while noting how new she was to the dangerous work.

Crow was the prop manager on "The Old Way," a Nicholas Cage movie which was Gutierrez-Reed's first as head armorer.

He described struggling to find an armorer at first.

"All the armorers I know and tried to bring in were working already, so I left it up to producers," he told the paper, saying he had "never heard of" Gutierrez-Reed.

"My skepticism of her initially, about her lack of experience, was allayed after I'd worked with her."

An affidavit from a Santa Fe County sheriff's deputy, released Sunday and seen by Insider, described the events of the shooting.

The document said that Gutierrez-Reed was overseeing three guns on the set, one of which was picked up by assistant director Dave Halls and given to Baldwin.

A portion of an affidavit describing the shooting of Halyna Hutchins on the set of "Rust" by Alec Baldwin.
A portion of an affidavit describing the shooting of Halyna Hutchins on the set of "Rust." State of New Mexico

It said that Halls yelled "cold gun" when giving Baldwin the weapon, industry jargon to indicate that a weapon is not dangerous.

When Baldwin started using it to practice a scene, the document said, it fired. The projectile struck Hutchins as well as director Joel Souza, who was injured but survived.

The affidavit said that after the shooting, Gutierrez-Reed retrieved the gun, removed the spent casing, and gave the weapon to sheriff's deputies when they arrived.

Gutierrez-Reed herself had voiced doubt about her experience, having told the "Voices of the West" podcast in September that she worried she might not be "ready" for the job on "The Old Way."

Since the fatal shooting on "Rust," two former colleagues from "The Old Way" - who were not named - told The Daily Beast that "she was a bit careless" with the guns on set.

They alleged that she had handed a gun to a child on set without checking it properly.

Crow suggested to the LA Times that after his initial doubts, her "family lineage" in the industry helped bolster his trust in her.

Gutierrez-Reed is the daughter of veteran armorer Thell Reed.

"She was without a lot of experience, but coming from her family lineage, I thought she was exceptional, professional," said Crow.

"I thought she had - I still think she has - many years of an amazing career ahead of her."

Gutierrez-Reed was unreachable for comment. Since the shooting she deleted her social-media profiles.

Read the original article on Insider