“Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed said the Santa Fe Sheriff’s indifference to DNA testing the live rounds found on set “raises a serious problem”In a Thursday statement.
“The primary question in this case from the beginning has been where did the live rounds that ended upon the Rust set come from?”Gutierrez-Reed stated in a statement, which was released by her attorney and emailed at. “As can be seen from the attached emails, the Sheriff’s office made a conscious decision not to pursue this question at all by refusing to ask the FBI to test any of the rounds for fingerprints or DNA.”
The investigation is able to determine this. “for certain” there were live rounds on set, Gutierrez-Reed called out the Sheriff’s indifference to testing, saying, “It is inconceivable that the Sheriff would not seek answers to this fundamental question and it raises a serious problem with the entire investigation.”
Alongside her statement, Gutierrez-Reed attached an email chain dated Thursday appearing to be between Albuquerque attorney Jason Bowles, who represents Gutierrez-Reed, and Alexandria J. Hancock from the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office, who discussed the matter of asking the FBI to DNA test the live rounds.
The emails and Gutierrez Rice’s statement did not indicate whether Gutierrez-Reed intended to ask for DNA testing on live rounds if she was charged.
The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to the ’s request for comment.
“Do you know why the fbi didn’t do any dna testing on the rounds?”Bowles sent Hancock an email on Thursday, Aug. 18, at 8:32 a.m.
Soon after, Hancock replied at 9:21 a.m. “We discussed as a team what would make most sense for the investigation. Given the fact the items were from movie sets, which had been handled over and over and over.”
Bowles reacted negatively to Hancock’s assertions and suggested that DNA could still be extracted from the rounds. Hancock then replied, “Thank you for your input, however we are done with testing at this time. We already know Hannah loaded the weapon that was used during the incident, that was her statement. We also know everything in question was handled by multiple people after the incident.”
Bowles urged the Sheriff’s office to reconsider in the final email in the chain, noting “This will be a very significant issue at trial, if we get there.”
This statement comes one week after Santa Fe County authorities announced the completion of their forensics analysis of Halyna HUTCHINS’ bullet in the gun that killed her as a cinematographer on Oct. 21, 2021 at the Alec Baldwin movie set.
While Baldwin was holding the gun that discharged, Gutierrez-Reed’s role in the fatal shooting has been investigated as well. In March, the armorer pushed back against Baldwin’s claims in legal filings that she told him to cock the gun, saying that he acted “against all rules and common sense.”
“We have long sought this answer and will not give up in pursuing the truth to find it,” Gutierrez-Reed concluded.