Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer in charge of the weaponry on the Rust set in Santa Fe County, was apparently chastised for safety issues on her last production, which ended in actor Nicolas Cage reportedly stomping off the set after yelling at her, according to the Wrap.

Sources who previously worked with the 24 year old informed the publication that she got a number of complaints on other sets prior to the disaster on the set of Rust that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza. Key grip Stu Brumbaugh stated that Gutierrez-Reed enraged crew members and Nicolas Cage on the set of The Old Way, which was shot in Montana this summer.

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed said she felt nervous about being head armorer at first due to her lack of experience.
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According to Brumbaugh, Cage snapped when Gutierrez-Reed discharged a gun near the cast and crew for the second time in three days without warning.

Brumbaugh remembers Cage yelling before fleeing in a fury, “Make an announcement, you just blew my f—ing eardrums out!”

Brumbaugh advised the assistant director that the armourer “needed to be let go”

“After the second round, I was pissed off. We were moving too fast. She’s a rookie,” he said.

After reporting to the production staff, he learned that this was her first film as an on-set armorer. A producer on The Old Way refuted the encounter with Nicolas Cage in a statement sent to the Wrap. “I have no such recollection of this event on our set,” said the producer. “The details on some of these accounts specifically when it pertains to The Old Way have been blown out of proportion.”

Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico on Saturday. Jae C. Hong/AP Photo

The producer also stated that Gutierrez-Reed’s  work on The Old Way was overseen by a seasoned property master, Jeffrey Crow. Crow previously spoke with the Los Angeles Times and backed Gutierrez-Reed.

“Working with Hannah, I’m surprised that any of this happened under her watch,” Crow told the Los Angeles Times. “I thought she was a very young, up-and-coming, eager, and talented armorer.”

Brumbaugh also documented a number of concerns about Gutierrez-Reed, including the fact that she strolled onto the scene with live rounds or blanks without informing the actors and crew.

He claims she also hid guns beneath her armpits, which she aimed at individuals when she turned her back on them.

Prior to the tragic Rust shooting, the young armourer acknowledged that she didn’t feel prepared for the responsibilities when she took The Old Way position.

“It was also my first time being head armourer … I was really nervous about it at first, and I almost didn’t take the job because I wasn’t sure if I was ready,” she admitted last month on a podcast.

“I think the best part about my job is just showing people who are normally kind of freaked out by guns how safe they can be and how they’re not really problematic unless put in the wrong hands.”

These allegations come just days after TMZ alleged that Gutierrez-Reed was connected to the death of her buddy Tyler Dyer last year. Dyer was killed in a motorbike accident in August 2020, and she told authorities that she saw Dyer consume four to five beers before the collision.

Her boyfriend Aaron Butcher was also involved in the incident, and she said he had drunk a comparable amount of alcohol. He was on probation for a DUI at the time and was only permitted to drive cars that required the use of a breathalyzer to start the ignition.