‘Rust’ Investigators Share Details on How Live Ammo Ended Up on Set
Written by SOURCE on December 1, 2021
More than a month after the fatal shooting accident on the set of Rust, in which actor Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun which killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souz, the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office continues to investigate how live rounds made their way to the film’s set.
According to an affidavit released on Tuesday, Seth Kenney, the weapons expert who supplied guns for the movie, told investigators he had an idea how the live ammunition ended up on set.
“Seth described how a couple years back, he received ‘reloaded ammunition’ from a friend,’” the investigators wrote in the search warrant affidavit. “Seth described the ammunition stuck out to him due to the suspected live round to have (sic) a cartridge with the Starline Brass logo on it… He described how the company only sells components of ammunition, and not live ammunition, and therefore it had to be a reloaded round.”
The affidavit also includes new details from interviews with armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who is currently under investigation for her handling of firearms on the set of Rust. Guiterrez-Reed told deputies she recalled loading the gun with five dummy rounds on the day of the shooting.
“We had the gun the whole time before that, and nothing happened, and I wasn’t in there, and they weren’t even supposed to be pulling the hammer back,” she told investigators.
Earlier this month, it was reported that Gutierrez-Reed had received a number of complaints on different film sets prior to the Rust incident. On the set of The Old Way, shot in Montana over the summer, actor Nicolas Cage yelled at the armorer after she failed to announce the usage of a weapon for the second time in three days though a producer on the film later denied that the incident happened.
The warrant also mentions Gutierrez-Reed’s father, Thell Reed, who’s a longtime Hollywood armorer. Reed told authorities on Nov. 15 that he supplied Kenney with the ammunition on a separate movie set and that Kenney had never returned the ammunition.
“After several attempts to get it back from Seth, Seth advised Thell to ‘write it off.’ Thell stated this ammunition may match the ammunition found on the set of ‘Rust,’” the search warrant said.
The affidavit arrives just two weeks after the first lawsuit was filed in connection with the fatal shooting of Hutchins on the Rust set. The film’s gaffer, Serge Svetnoy, filed the suit against Baldwin, producers on the film, Reed, and Halls. “This incident was caused by the negligent acts and omission of Defendants, and each of them, as well as their agents, principals, and employers,” the complaint of general negligence said. “Simply put, there was no reason for a live bullet to be placed in that .45 Colt revolver to be present anywhere on the Rust set, and the presence of a bullet in a revolver posed a lethal threat to everyone in its vicinity.”
