A chilling new development has come in about the shooting that occurred on the set of the Alec Baldwin movie Rust, as attorneys representing the film’s armorer are claiming that a saboteur slipped live rounds into the ammo box.

Jason Bowles and Robert Gorence are lawyers representing the 24-year-old armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, and they told the “Today” show that there was a box of bullets on the set labeled as dummy rounds that their client pulled from to load the gun.

“I believe that somebody who would do that would want to sabotage the set, want to prove a point, want to say that they’re disgruntled, they’re unhappy,” Bowles said. “And we know that people had walked off the set the day before.”

When asked if he thought a crew member could be a suspect, Bowles replied, “I think you can’t rule anybody out at this point.”

“We know there was a live round in a box of dummy rounds that shouldn’t have been there,” Bowles explained. “We have people who had left the set, who had walked out because they were disgruntled. We have a time frame between 11 (a.m.) and 1 (p.m.), approximately, that day, in which the firearms at times were unattended, so there was opportunity to tamper with this scene.”

Gorence chimed in to say that the film set’s prop ammunition was in a truck “that was completely unattended at all times, giving someone access and opportunity.”

Gutierrez-Reed said last week that she does not know how the live bullet that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins got into the gun, which was fired by Baldwin. She added that no live ammunition is ever kept on set, according to court documents.

When asked if Gutierrez-Reed’s statement is true, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza replied, “No, obviously it isn’t. That was a live round that struck and killed Ms. Hutchins, so that’s not an accurate statement as far as I’m concerned.”

Mendoza said last week that the investigation into this shooting, which will likely take months, centers on assistant director Dave Halls, who declared the gun was safe, and Gutierrez-Reed and Baldwin.

“Nobody’s been cleared as of yet,” Mendoza said. “Again, there’s three people that handled the firearm prior to the death of Miss Hutchins, so those people will be interviewed, are the focus of the investigation, and so nobody’s been cleared as of yet.”

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It will certainly be interesting to see how this all plays out.

This piece was written by James Samson on November 4, 2021. It originally appeared in RedVoiceMedia.com and is used by permission.

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