Jason Bowles and Robert Gorence, the attorneys for “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, spoke on “Today” to paint a clearer timeline about how a live round got on set. Bowles also brought up the new defense that, “We’re assuming somebody put the live round in that box, which, if you think about that, the person who put the live round in the box of dummy rounds had to have the purpose of sabotaging the set.”
The “sabotaging the set” statement made anchor Savannah Guthrie pause and clarify, asking, “Is that your theory of the case? That someone intentionally placed a live round into a box of dummies, for the purpose of it ending up in a weapon that would be used on set?”
“We don’t have a theory yet, we are investigating and we’re trying to get all of the facts — that’s one of the possibilities,” Bowles responded.
When Guthrie pressed further, Bowles said, “I believe that somebody who would do that would want to sabotage the set, want to prove point, want to say that they’re disgruntled, they’re unhappy. And we know that people had walked off the set the day before.”
When asked if a crew member could have tampered, Bowles said, “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. 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 added that “that was completely unattended at all times, giving someone access and opportunity.” Gutierrez-Reed wasn’t able to keep an eye on the firearms during that time period, Gorence said, because “She had another duty and responsibility as key props assistant, and so she had gone to do that, right after she had provided the handgun to [assistant director Dave] Halls. So Mr. Halls took custody of the weapon and at that point she was doing her other duties as key prop assistant.”
Watch the full interview below: