Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who served as armorer on the set of Rust, may have passed off drugs following the shooting.
Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed may be caught white-handed, as prosecutors are claiming that Reed was in possession of cocaine and then allegedly “handed off the drugs after returning from her initial police interview.”
As per the prosecutors’ statement against the Rust armorer, “The circumstances of the transfer of evidence strongly support the charge that the defendant transferred the cocaine to avoid prosecution and prevent law enforcement from obtaining highly inculpatory evidence directly related the defendant’s handling of the firearm and the circumstances of the fatal shooting of Halyna Hutchins.” As the witness hopes to remain anonymous, representatives for Hannah Gutierrez-Reed have jumped on the request, saying, “The state wants to publish salacious allegations about Ms. Gutierrez Reed in a secret procedure, which is not condoned by the rules or constitution…If the state really believes these allegations, why the secrecy?”
The case against Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who grew infamous as the armorer on western Rust following the 2021 accidental shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, has only grown more damaging in the past few weeks. In mid-June, claims were made that she was hungover on the set, with witnesses saying she was “drinking heavily and smoking marijuana in the evenings during the shooting of Rust.” Prosecutors have worked to hammer home the point, saying, “Her reckless failure resulted in the senseless death of another human being…All Defendant Gutierrez needed to do was shake every bullet and make sure it rattled before putting it in the gun — she failed and killed someone.”
As Rust has wrapped production — with Bianca Cline stepping in as cinematographer and Hutchins’ widower serving as producer — and charges against star Alec Baldwin have been dropped, focus has since shifted almost exclusively to its armorer. She also served as armorer on this year’s Nicolas Cage-starring western The Old Way.
No release date has been set for Rust, although it will undoubtedly be a highly covered event.
How do you think Rust armorer Hanna Guiterrez-Reed will come out as the investigation unfolds? Can Rust ever overcome the tragedy attached to it? Give us your thoughts in the combers section below.