In the latest development in the Rust shooting aftermath, the armorer on the film’s set has sued the ammunition supplier.
As per Variety, Hannah Gutierrez Reed has sued Seth Kenney, the man who supplied the Rust production with ammunition, for allegedly providing a mixture of dummy rounds and live bullets that led to the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
Reed filed the suit in New Mexico this week. In the suit, her representatives relayed her version of the events that unfolded on October 21st, when Alec Baldwin fired a shot that killed Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza.
“Defendants distributed boxes of ammunition purporting to contain dummy rounds, but which contained a mix of dummy and live ammunition to the Rust production,” the suit states. “Hannah and the entire Rust movie crew relied on the Defendants’ misrepresentation that they provided only dummy ammunition.
In so doing, Defendants created a dangerous condition on the movie set, unbeknownst to Hannah Gutierrez Reed, which caused a foreseeable risk of injury to numerous people.”
Kenney, owner of PDQ Arm & Prop in Albuquerque, has previously told investigators that dummy rounds may have become mixed with “reloaded” rounds that contained live bullets. These live rounds would have had the Starline Brass logo, making them appear very similar to dummy rounds.
In a later interview, however, he then contradicted that explanation, fully denying that the live rounds ever came from him. “It’s not a possibility that they came from PDQ or from myself personally,” he said, insisting that rounds are individually rattle-tested before they are sent out to film sets.
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Investigators with the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office are continuing to look into how the live rounds made it onto the set, including considering Reed’s new lawsuit.
For more on this topic, follow the Film & TV Observer.
