'Rust' armorer files lawsuit against prop supplier alleging the company provided a box that contained live ammunition

• The armorer on the set of Alec Baldwin's "Rust" filed a lawsuit against the film's ammo supplier.
• Hannah Gutierrez Reed alleges the company's owner provided a box of ammo that contained live rounds.

Hannah Gutierrez Reed, the 24-year-old armorer on the set of Alec Baldwin's "Rust," is suing the film's ammo supplier, alleging the company is responsible for the accidental shooting death of cinematographer Hylana Hutchins, claiming the company's owner provided a box that contained live ammunition mixed with dummy rounds.

The Wednesday lawsuit filed in New Mexico district court and obtained by Insider targets the company PDQ Arm & Prop, LLC and its founder, Seth Kenney.

An attorney for Kenney did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment and an attorney for Gutierrez Reed declined to comment.

Last year, Gutierrez Reed's claimed that someone had "sabotaged" the production by including live ammunition on set.

Authorities are still investigating the October incident in which Baldwin fatally shot Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza on the set of the Western film while rehearsing a scene with a firearm he had been told did not contain live rounds.

Gutierrez Reed, the daughter of industry armorer Thell Reed, was fulfilling a double role on the set as an armorer and prop assistant and has faced an onslaught of scrutiny in the aftermath of the shooting.

But in Wednesday's 24-page lawsuit, Jason Bowles, an attorney for Gutierrez Reed, points the finger at Kenney, the film's "armorer/mentor," who per the lawsuit supplied the guns and ammo used in the film.

The lawsuit, which includes screenshots of contentious texts between Kenney and Gutierrez Reed throughout production, alleges Kenney provided a box of ammo on the morning of the shooting that was labeled "dummy rounds," but also included live ammunition, from which Gutierrez Reed loaded the Colt. 45 used in the fatal shooting.

The lawsuit also alleges that in the aftermath of the shooting, Kenney attempted to place the blame squarely on Gutierrez Reed, inserting himself into authorities' investigation and encouraging the young armorer to go to the police and "tell them everything."

In the hours after the shooting, the lawsuit alleges that Kenney called Troy Teske, an Arizona police officer whom he met through Gutierrez Reed's father, Thell Reed, to suggest Hannah had "messed up." In the following days, Kenney allegedly called or texted Teske 20 times.

During a November call to Teske, the lawsuit claims Kenney asked the officer to send him some of Thell Reed's live rounds. Kenney had reportedly become aware that Thell Reed often kept his ammunition at Teske's home, the lawsuit said.

"[Kenney] was attempting to match one of Thell's reloaded rounds to the live rounds retrieved on the Rust set. If there were a match, presumably, [Kenney] sought to shift blame to [Gutierrez Reed] and connect her to these rounds through Thell's rounds kept at [Teske's] house," the lawsuit alleges.

Teske sent Kenney photos of Thell Reed's ammunition, which bear a distinctive Starline Brass "headstamp" marking — the same marking found on the live round casing seized from the scene. Kenney reportedly texted back "yep its evidence in the accidental death," attempting to link the live ammunition found on set to Gutierrez Reed, the lawsuit claims.

However, Thell Reed alleges Kenney had access to hundreds of his personal Starline Brass rounds after Kenney took a can of ammo from him on the set of a previous movie. Since November, Thell Reed has publicly accused Kenney of never returning hundreds of rounds of live ammo, all of which are now unaccounted for, after they worked together on a separate project.

Gutierrez Reed is seeking a jury trial and damages from Kenney, according to the lawsuit. Kenney has previously denied any wrongdoing in the incident.

In November, a New Mexico Judge granted the sheriff's office a search warrant for PDQ Arm & Prop. Kenney, along with Gutierrez Reed and assistant director David Halls, has been named in two previous lawsuits filed in the case.

In addition to placing the blame on Kenney and PDQ Arm & Prop, the lawsuit also describes how the set's "Video Village" system was malfunctioning on the day of the shooting after a majority of the camera crew quit over safety and financial concerns the day before. The lawsuit claims the faulty video program meant anybody who wasn't in the Church where the scene was being shot was unable to watch production, a factor that limited Gutierrez Reed's ability to safely monitor gun usage.