Who is Hannah Gutierrez-Reed? The 'Rust' armorer who will be charged with involuntary manslaughter alongside Alec Baldwin

• Halyna Hutchins was fatally shot by a prop gun discharged by Alec Baldwin on the set of "Rust"
• "Rust" armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed is the daughter of the legendary armorer Thell Reed.

"Rust" armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter in January 2023 in connection to her involvement in the shooting on the set of "Rust," with a firearm enhancement charge added to the punishment. On February 20, 2023, the firearm enhancement charge was dropped for her and actor Alec Baldwin, meaning they now only face up to 18 months behind bars.

Information about the fatal shooting on the set of the movie "Rust" was revealed by authorities after the fatal event, including details about the prop gun that was fired by Baldwin and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

According to affidavits that were included in search warrant documents for the film's set at Santa Fe's Bonanza Creek Ranch, the prop gun was one of three "set up" by Gutierrez-Reed and left on a cart.

The firearm was then picked up by the movie's assistant director, Dave Halls, who took it to Baldwin for a scene inside a church building on the set, according to the police documents. As Halls handed the gun to Baldwin, he said "cold gun" before the incident, indicating that the gun did not contain any live rounds, according to the documents. The gun was then fired by Baldwin, striking Hutchins, as well as director Joel Souza, who was behind Hutchins at the time.

As the film's armorer, Gutierrez-Reed was in charge of firearms on the set, though she has been described as "inexperienced" in several media reports. Below, Insider breaks down all the information we know about the 25-year-old.

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed is the daughter of veteran Hollywood armorer Thell Reed

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed's father is Thell Reed, а well-known Hollywood аrmorer. Reed — whose credits include 1997's "L.A. Confidential" and 2006's "Miami Vice" was born аnd rаised in Downey, Cаliforniа, аccording to his IMDb profile.

According to IMDb, Reed has been known to work intimately with actors such as Brad Pitt and Val Kilmer to achieve "realistic gun handling." Reed was also a quick draw expert on Quentin Tarantino's 2012 film "Django Unchained." The Daily Beast has reported that Gutierrez-Reed was trained by her father.

During an interview with Entertainment Weekly in 1995, Reed discussed his technique for teaching actors how to use firearms.

"I teach smoothness and style," he said, "and the speed comes by itself."

'Rust' was Hannah Gutierrez-Reed's second film as a head armorer

During a recent interview on the "Voices of the West" podcast, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed said that "Rust" was only the second time she had worked as a lead armorer on a film set. She said her first experience was on the set of the film "The Old Way," which stars Nicolas Cage and recently wrapped shooting.

Gutierrez-Reed also told the podcast that she almost didn't take the job because she hadn't been sure if she was ready for it.

"It was a really badass way to start off a really long and cool career," she said on the podcast. "It was also my first time being head armorer as well. I almost didn't take the job because I wasn't sure if I was ready. But doing it, like, it went really smoothly."

Gutierrez-Reed later added that she had initially been fearful loading blanks into guns on set.

"I think loading blanks was the scariest thing to me because I was like, oh, I don't know anything about it," she said.

Crew members from 'The Old Way' have criticized Gutierrez-Reed

Earlier this week, the online publication The Wrap published a report citing sources from the set of "The Old Way" who said Gutierrez-Reed exhibited poor gun safety on set.

Stu Brumbaugh, who worked as a key grip on "The Old Way," told The Wrap that Hannah Gutierrez-Reed's behavior caused the film's star Nicolas Cage to scream at her and storm off set after she fired a gun near the cast and crew for the second time in three days without warning.

"Make an announcement, you just blew my fucking eardrums out," Cage yelled before walking off the set, Brumbaugh told the publication.

Two separate sources told The Daily Beast that there had been "considerably less attention" given to gun safety under Gutierrez-Reed's leadership on the film's set.

"There were several concerns I brought to production's attention," one source told the publication. "I have been around firearms my entire life and noticed some things that were not OK even with loaded blank firearms."

The Daily Beast went on to recount a story from a source who said Gutierrez-Reed loaded a gun during production and handed it to a child actor without properly checking the weapon. Filming was stopped by crew members who intervened and demanded that Gutierrez-Reed had properly checked the firearm, the publication reported.

"She was reloading the gun on the ground, where there were pebbles and stuff. We didn't see her check it, we didn't know if something got in the barrel or not," the report said.

Gutierrez-Reed didn't immediately speak publicly about the incident

There are three ongoing investigations into the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Authorities said that the gun discharged by Alec Baldwin on the set of "Rust" was loaded with a lead bullet.

"We believe that we have the spent shell casing from the bullet that was fired from the gun," said Santa Fe Sheriff Adan Mendoza in a press conference, adding that "a lead projectile had also been recovered."

Officials said at the press conference that they weren't ruling out charges in the incident.

Multiple reports have also suggested that the prop gun used in the fatal incident was used for live-ammo target practice by crew members on the morning of the shooting. Several crew members took prop guns from the movie and drove away from the "Rust" set to shoot beer cans with live ammunition, according to sources cited by The Wrap.

According to a court document in Santa Fe County Magistrate Court, Santa Fe authorities recovered nine spent casings along with three black revolvers and "loose ammo" from the movie set after the shooting.

Alec Baldwin broke his silence in a series of tweets, saying his "heart is broken."

"There are no words to convey my shock and sadness regarding the tragic accident that took the life of Halyna Hutchins, a wife, mother and deeply admired colleague of ours," Baldwin tweeted.

"I'm fully cooperating with the police investigation to address how this tragedy occurred," he added.

In a second tweet, Baldwin continued: "I am in touch with her husband, offering my support to him and his family. My heart is broken for her husband, their son, and all who knew and loved Halyna."

In a statement in August 2022, Guttierez-Reed released a statement saying that there were "serious" problems with the investigation into Hutchins' death, per Deadline.

"The primary question in this case from the beginning has been where did the live rounds that ended upon the 'Rust' set come from? 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," her statement read in part.

"It is inconceivable that the Sheriff would not seek answers to this fundamental question and it raises a serious problem with the entire investigation. We have long sought this answer and will not give up in pursuing the truth to find it," she concluded.

Gutierrez-Reed was charged with involuntary manslaughter in January 2023

On January 19, 2023, prosecutors announced that Gutierrez-Reed and Baldwin will each be charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection to Hutchins' death, per CNN. The involuntary manslaughter charge is evoked when someone is killed unlawfully but unintentionally or the victim's death could've been a result of recklessness.

"We were expecting the charges but they're absolutely wrong as to Hannah – we expect that she will be found not guilty by a jury and she did not commit manslaughter," attorney Jason Bowles said in a statement Thursday, the site reported.

Bowles added that Gutierrez-Reed was "emotional" about the fatal events that occurred on the "Rust" set in 2021, but "committed no crime."

Baldwin's attorneys said that the decision to charge the actor was a "terrible miscarriage of justice."

On February 20, 2023, the firearm enhancement charge that both Gutierrez-Reed and Baldwin faced was dropped, Heather Brewer, a spokesperson for the DA's office, told Insider.

The charge would've added a mandatory additional five years onto their punishment, meaning that both would've faced a maximum sentence of 6.5 years in prison. With the firearm enhancement charge dropped, both Gutierrez-Reed and Baldwin now face a maximum sentence of 18 months in prison if convicted.

The charges were dropped because the statute that included the mandatory additional five years didn't exist on the day of the "Rust" set shotting in October 2021.

"In order to avoid further litigious distractions by Mr. Baldwin and his attorneys, the District Attorney and the special prosecutor have removed the firearm enhancement to the involuntary manslaughter charges in the death of Halyna Hutchins on the 'Rust' film set," Brewer's statement to Insider said.