The official is not buying the sabotage theories suggested by armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed's lawyers amid investigations into the gun incident involving Alec Baldwin.
- Nov 11, 2021
AceShowbiz - The woman heading up the investigation into the fatal shooting on the set of western "Rust" in New Mexico is playing down reports of sabotage.
Santa Fe County District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies insists there is no evidence to support claims made by attorneys representing on-set armourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, suggesting a disgruntled crew member put live ammunition among blanks.
Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was shot and killed three weeks ago (21Oct21) by the film's star Alec Baldwin when he was handed a prop gun featuring a live round.
Carmack-Altwies told "Good Morning America" the investigation could take months and she's determined to make sure that every possible outcome is explored, but she's not buying conspiracy theories surrounding the sabotage claims.
"Prosecutors have to deal in facts and evidence," she said. "I know that some defence attorneys have come up with conspiracy theories and have used the word 'sabotage', but we do not have any proof."
Asked if she believes sabotage is a possibility, the D.A. said, "No."
Gutierrez-Reed's attorney Jason Bowles made headlines last week (ends05Nov21) when he suggested a crew member might have placed live rounds in among blank bullets to create chaos on set and prove a point about safety concerns.
Carmack-Altwies said if sabotage does come into play during the criminal investigation, she will be looking for "a higher level of murder charge than we would potentially be looking at with the facts that we have now," but she added, "We don't have the same information that they (defence attorneys) do."
Meanwhile, the District Attorney admitted the most concerning thing to come out of the investigation so far is "there were so many levels of failures on that set."
She also confirmed several live rounds were found on the set, together with dummy bullets.
"We still don't know how they got on the set and how they got there, I think, will be one of the most important factors going into a charging decision," the D.A. added.
"It's probably more important to focus on what led up to the shooting, because the moment of the shooting, we know that at least Mr. Baldwin had no idea that the gun was loaded, so it's more how did that gun get loaded, what levels of failure happened and were those levels of failure criminal."
Carmack-Altwies told "GMA" she knows who loaded the gun, but refused to identify the person.
According to a search warrant affidavit, assistant director Dave Halls handed the gun to Baldwin, but his attorney, Lisa Torraco, insists that's not correct. However, the Santa Fe D.A. insisted it "does seem to be the case" that Halls gave the loaded gun to the actor.
