Rust film set weapons supervisor was likely hungover, prosecutors say

The Rust set at the Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on 23 October 2021. Photograph: Jae C Hong/AP

Prosecutors in a case arising from the 2021 fatal shooting on the set of the movie Rust claim that the weapons supervisor on the production was drinking and smoking marijuana in the evenings during filming – and she was likely hungover when she loaded a live bullet into the revolver that actor Alec Baldwin used.

The accusation was made in a response to a request by attorneys for the gun handler Hannah Gutierrez-Reed to have involuntary manslaughter charges against her dismissed, as her defense condemned what they said were “character assassination” tactics in a mishandled case.