Rust gaffer calls out producers who 'save a dime' by hiring inexperienced crew

A poster protesting the death of Halyna Hutchins.
(Image credit: Sam Wasson/Getty Images)

Serge Svetnoy, the gaffer on the New Mexico set of Rust who witnessed the accidental shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, wrote in a lengthy Facebook post that her death is "the fault of negligence and unprofessionalism."

Svetnoy wrote on Sunday that several people were careless on set, from the person responsible for checking the prop gun to the person who should have announced there was a loaded gun on site. Svetnoy did not explicitly name Rust's 24-year-old lead armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed, who oversaw gun safety and usage on set, but did state that the "department that was responsible for the weapons" was not led by a professional.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.