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Wardrobe “Rust” Hannah Gutierrez Reed has sued the low-budget western weapons supplier, alleging that she supplied an error-marked ammunition box containing live cartridges to the set, contributing to the fatal crash of the actor Alec Baldwin.
Gutierrez Reed’s lawsuit was filed Wednesday afternoon in the 2nd Judicial District Court of New Mexico in Albuquerque against Seth Kenney and his firm, PDQ Arm & Prop. The lawsuit alleges that Kenney and PDQ violated New Mexico’s Unfair Commercial Practices Act by introducing dangerous products into the film’s set. and providing ammunition with “false label representations.”
A box of ammunition, which appeared on the set near Santa Fe on the morning of the October 21 fatal crash, was labeled a “mannequin,” although the box contained seven live cartridges mixed with 43 mannequins. according to demand.
Kenney has said he did not provide live rounds to “Rust,” including the one Baldwin shot, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injuring the film’s director, Joel Souza.
“PDQ Arm & Prop, LLC provided the weapons, targets and a portion of Dummy Rounds to Rust,” Kenney said in a statement to The Times in late November. “According to the industry’s safe standards, PDQ did not provide actual ammunition to Rust.”
Neither Kenney nor his attorney were immediately available for comment Wednesday.
The lawsuit comes as Santa Fe County Sheriff’s investigators continue to search for details about the crash that increased demands for more security measures on film sets.
Deputies have been scrutinizing Baldwin’s actions – the star and producer who fired the gun during a rehearsal – as well as assistant director David Halls, who was in charge of security at the Bonanza Creek Ranch set; and Gutierrez Reed, a 24-year-old gunsmith in production, responsible for weapons, ammunition and weapons security.
Gutierrez Reed previously told sheriff’s detectives that while checking Baldwin’s gun that day before the unscheduled rehearsal, “he didn’t actually check it too much,” because the gun had been locked in a safe. during a lunch break, according to a November report. 30 affidavit filed by a sheriff’s detective.
In his lawsuit, Gutierrez Reed said he did not hand the gun to Baldwin after the lunch break, as is customary, and said he did not know the weapon would be used in a trial.
Instead, he presented the weapon to Halls, who told investigators he did not check all rounds of the weapon before handing it to Baldwin.
The costume depicts Gutierrez Reed as a low-level worker who had to pay $ 7,500 to do two jobs at “Rust” as a gunsmith in charge of the weapons in the heavy weapon film and as an assistant to the master of accessories.
The lawsuit speculated that the ammunition came from Gutierrez Reed’s father, Thell Reed, a well-known Hollywood gunsmith. Kenney worked with Thell Reed on another western filmed last summer in Texas, and during that production, Kenney asked Thell Reed to bring real ammunition so they could take the actors from that movie, “1883,” to a shooting range and show them how they felt. shoot a vintage gun.
Reed previously told investigators that Kenney returned to New Mexico with his can of ammunition. The can contained 200 to 300 rounds of ammunition, depending on demand. Santa Fe sheriff’s agents searched Kenney’s PDQ store in Albuquerque on Nov. 30.
The lawsuit alleges that Kenney and PDQ Arm & Prop then provided some of the ammunition to “Rust” in a box labeled “45 Colt Dummies,” although the contents contained both simulated and real ammunition. said the lawsuit.
“These misrepresentations led to live rounds being introduced on the set, resulting in a predictably catastrophic outcome and causing damage to people on the Rust set.”
According to the lawsuit, Gutiérrez Reed was surprised to find a box full of ammunition on top of his equipment bag in the accessory truck when he arrived to work around 6:30 p.m. “Hannah exclaimed words like, ‘What’s this?’ We’ve been looking for a box full of mock rounds for weeks! says the dress.
The Times reported earlier that in the days immediately following the shooting, property owner Sarah Zachry told an acquaintance that the appearance of a new box of ammunition that morning was puzzling.
Zachry served as the PDQ’s firearms representative on “Rust,” Kenney said.
10 a.m. .
Gutierrez Reed, who believed the box contained only simulated rounds, tried to load a sixth bullet, but was trapped. Throughout the morning, Baldwin wielded the weapon with all five rounds.
After lunch, Gutierrez Reed cleaned a chamber of Baldwin’s weapon and then “took another round out of the mannequin box, shook it, and placed it in the chamber,” the suit read.
The film’s props department safeguarded weapons, but not ammunition, the lawsuit claims.
“During the production of the Rust set, prior to filming, the accessory truck was almost always left unlocked and accessible to anyone,” the lawsuit said. He also noted that the sheriff’s investigators did not search the truck until six days after the shooting.
Will Wagoner, Zachry’s attorney, said there were numerous inaccuracies in his client’s representation of the lawsuit.
“The PDQ did something wrong? Who knows, they may have. But I know my client didn’t,” Wagoner said.
Gutierrez Reed’s lead attorney Jason Bowles has previously raised the idea of ”sabotage” on set, without providing evidence of the allegations.
The lawsuit brings together a number of events before and after the deadly shooting, including Kenney’s interactions with Thell Reed and one of Reed’s friends. It also contained a text message in which Kenney opposed Bowles’ claims of “sabotage.”
“There’s nothing to gain because Hannah and her lawyers are dragging me into this,” Kenney wrote in a text message to Thell Reed. “In any case, the DA can perceive this as a scapegoat tactic without apology and further reduce the boom. You and I will be collateral damage in this tragedy and approach, it makes no sense.”
Following the shooting, according to the lawsuit, Kenney encouraged Guttierez Reed to cooperate with police and “implicate AD Halls as responsible for the tragedy,” the lawsuit said.
“You’re young, certainly not green or inexperienced with vintage weapons, but have you left the overall system and AD with over 30 years of experience?” Kenney wrote in a text message to Gutierrez Reed, which was copied in the lawsuit. “I think you did, and you’re too proud to say it. If you had partnered with a really professional AD, none of that would have happened.”
