Hannah Gutierrez-Reed Has Filed A Lawsuit Against The Person Who Supplied The Ammunition For “Rust”
While Alec Baldwin is busy trying to erase “find sexy Latinas in my area” from his search history before the police get a hold of his phone, Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed continues to try to cover her own ass by filing a lawsuit against a man named Seth Kenney, the owner of PDQ Arm & Prop, who she claims provided the ammunition for the film, including the live round that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza. TMZ says that even though Alec, who held the gun that killed Halyna, is not named in her suit, Hannah claims that he ignored her request to attend a “cross draw training session” with her prior to the unscheduled rehearsal in the church. She also claims that assistant director Dave Halls assured her he would be “sitting with the gun” during the rehearsal that she wasn’t allowed to attend because of COVID protocols. Hannah says if she had been there, she never would have allowed Alec to point the gun at Halnya.
Hannah’s prior suggestion that a disgruntled employee may have sabotaged the production by introducing live rounds onto the set has pivoted to an accusation that Seth was the one responsible for supplying the deadly ammunition. Hannah’s suit accuses Seth of “violation of trade practices, false and deceptive product labels, and false and material misrepresentations.” According to CNN:
In the complaint filed Wednesday in the Second Judicial District Court in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, Gutierrez Reed accuses PDQ Arm and Prop, LLC. and its founder Seth Kenney of violation of trade practices, false and deceptive product labels, and false and material misrepresentations after, Gutierrez Reed alleges, Kenney sold her a cache of dummy ammunition with live rounds mixed in.
Kenney and his company “sold, distributed, and advertised its props as dummy ammunition and not live rounds,” the complaint said. “Hannah relied upon and trusted that Defendants would only supply dummy prop ammunition, or blanks, and no live rounds were ever to be on set.”
The complaint includes allegations that Kenney attempted to “direct” the criminal investigation into Hutchins’ death in a way that cast blame on Gutierrez Reed and included screenshots of text messages between the pair showing they had a “fallout.”
To make matters even murkier, Hannah’s own dad, experienced armorer Thell Reed, told police investigators that “he gave an ammo can of live ammunition to Kenney for a live-fire training with actors for a separate movie,” suggesting that he may have been the original source of the can of whatever lethal Chex Mix they were using on set. Oh, and now there’s a mystery man named Billy Ray to consider. According to The Albuquerque Journal:
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed told deputies she loaded the revolver with six rounds before the incident, believing they were “dummy” rounds. “Rust” prop master Sarah Zachry told deputies the ammunition was provided by Kenney, by Gutierrez-Reed from a previous production and “from an individual identified as ‘Billy Ray.’”
Days after the shooting, Kenney told deputies he may have given Gutierrez-Reed reloaded ammunition he had previously gotten from a friend.
Deputies also spoke with Thell Reed, Gutierrez-Reed’s father, who told them he gave an ammo can of live ammunition to Kenney for a live-fire training with actors for a separate movie.
A Los Angeles Times report (dated prior to Hannah’s lawsuit) says that Seth Kenney was listed on the Rust crew list as “armorer mentor,” an apparently made-up role that Seth denies he performed. It also notes that Thell Reed “told the investigators that Kenney returned to New Mexico with the can that still contained .45-caliber Colt ammunition,” and that when he tried to get the can back, “Kenney told him to ‘write it off’.” So there you have it. Sounds like Billy Ray is the one-armed boogeyman fall guy responsible for it all. Case solved! Everybody can go home now. Well, everybody except for Halyna.
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