Dummy Ammo Replaced By Live Rounds As Sabotage, Suggests ‘Rust’ Armorer's Attorney

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Someone could have put live rounds in a box of dummy ammo on the set of the movie 'Rust' in an act of sabotage, leading to the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins by actor Alec Baldwin, an attorney for armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed said on Wednesday.

"There was a box of dummy rounds labelled ‘dummy’. We don’t know whether the live round came from that box. We’re assuming somebody put the live round in the box," attorney Jason Bowles told NBC in an interview.

Bowles speculated that someone who would "want to sabotage the set, want to prove a point, want to say they're disgruntled, they're unhappy", could have done it.

Such actions could have led to Baldwin accidentally shooting cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and director Joel Souza, killing the former and wounding the latter on the set of 'Rust' at Bonanza Creek Ranch near Santa Fe, New Mexico last month.

An aerial view of the film set on Bonanza Creek Ranch where Hollywood actor Alec Baldwin fatally shot cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounded a director when he discharged a prop gun on the movie set of the film "Rust" in Santa Fe, New Mexico, U.S., in this frame grab taken from October 21, 2021 television footage. Footage taken October 21, 2021.

© REUTERS / KOB TV NEWS

Union members of the film crew were reportedly replaced with non-union workers in the hours leading up to the fatal shooting, after complaints of poor working conditions and unsafe practices, including accidental discharges of weapons.

Law enforcement is still actively conducting an investigation into the shooting, and has yet to rule out the possibility of criminal charges in the case, Santa Fe county sheriff Adan Mendoza said during a recent update.