On October 27, 2021, a search warrant was executed for a prop truck at the Bonanza Creek Ranch. Seth Kenney was present during the search due to a gun safe in the truck needing a code to be unlocked. Affiant spoke to Seth about the various kinds of ammunition he provided to the set of Rust. Seth advised the ammo included dummy rounds and blanks. He said how the ammunition he provides to the productions are from a manufacturer identified as Starline Brass.
On October 29, 2021, Affiant received a phone call from Seth, where he advised he may know where the live rounds came from. Seth described how a couple years back, he received "reloaded ammunition" from a friend. Seth described the ammunition stuck out to him due to the suspected live round to have a cartridge with the Starline Brass logo on it. Seth described the logo to be a star, an arch, and then another star. He described how the company only sells components of ammunition, and not live ammunition, therefore it had to be a reloaded round.
Armorer Hannah Guiterrez-Reed told the Sheriff Deputies that she or the prop master Sarah picked up the ammo from Seth Kenney's business. Then on November 15, 2021, Hannah's father, long-time movie armorer Thell Reed provided a statement to the Sheriff's. On November 17, the Affiant for the warrant called Reed to discuss his statement. Reed told her:
[Reed] advised in the August/September time frame, he worked on a set with Seth Kenney. Thell advised during the production, there was training provided to the actors for live fire with firearms, conducted on a firearms range. Thell said at this time, Seth requested he bring live ammunition in the event they ran out of what was supplied.
Thell stated he did bring an "ammo can" with live ammunition from a friend, and this ammunition was not factory made rounds. He advised there was approximately 200-300 rounds in the can, and described the can to be green in color and looked like a military ammo can.
Thell advised after the production ended, Seth took the ammo can and the remainder of the ammunition in the can back to New Mexico. He said the can still had .45 caliber colt ammunition in it, and 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 Affidavit also contains these details from an interview with Hannah:
Hannah stated they [she and Sarah Zachry] got on set around 7:30 AM, but didn't dummy the gun up until a short time before lunch.
...Hannah advised when they all returned from lunch, Sarah pulled the gun out of the safe (the gun utilized by Alec) and handed it to her. Affiant asked Hannah if she loaded the gun after lunch, to which she stated it was already loaded before they went to lunch.
Affiant asked Hannah to clarify where the guns were located before lunch, to which she responded they were inside with the camera crew, and she was hardly allowed inside due to COVID precautions. Hannah advised she handed the gun to Alec (Baldwin) a couple times in the morning inside the set. Hannah ...advised she handed the gun off to Dave [Hall] while he was sitting in, and this hand off occurred after lunch.
So the gun was loaded just before lunch, but she had given it to Alec a few times in the morning inside the set -- the set she was rarely allowed in due to COVID?
Hannah also adds this new and perhaps relevant detail:
Hannah...advised she loaded the gun with 5 dummy rounds before lunch. Hannah stated there was one round that wouldn't go in so after lunch she took the cleaner, cleaned "it" out, and put another round in, which brought the total to six rounds loaded in the weapon. Hannah described the gun to be a long barrel Colt, .45 caliber.
...She stated the guns were checked on set, however she "didn't really check it too much" (the firearm), due to it being locked up at lunch. Hannah said after she did the check, she put in the last round.
Why did she think she had to add a 6th round when the scene didn't call for the gun to be fired ?
Sarah was interviewed the day of the shooting. The Affiant says she rewatched Sarah's interview:
In Sarah's interview she advised after the incident, she went to check the box of ammo on the props cart and compare it to the round she was handed which was the suspected live round from the fired gun. Sarah said when she was comparing it to other cartridges in the box, she found some of the cartridges would rattle, which signified them being "dummy rounds," however, others did not rattle. Sarah said this lead [sic] her to believe some of the other rounds in that box were live ammo.
In the interview, Sarah advised the ammunition for Rust was provided from various sources, to include Seth Kenney, some Hannah brought from a previous production, and extra rounds from an individual identified as "Billy Ray."
So this new warrant is for Seth Kenney's business. One item that doesn't quite match up: Seth told them he received the can a few years ago, and Thell Reid says Kenney took it from a set they were working on a few months ago.
The civil lawsuits have already been filed. Rust did have insurance so the insurance company's lawyers and the plaintiffs' lawyers and probably a few private lawyers hired by individual defendants will battle it all out and arrive at a settlement. There's some good information on the types of insurance policies available here.
While most film production insurance policies are a cocktail of General Liability, Workers’ Comp, and equipment coverage, some productions require special insurance policies, insuring everything from stunts to drones.
Added onto your existing annual or short term production insurance policy, special film production insurance policies cover a wide swath of elements, including:... Stunts, Weapons...Props [see linked article for additional available special add-ons]
Alec Baldwin's film company, El Dorado Pictures, is producing or co-producing Rust.
El Dorado Pictures is home to actor Alec Baldwin. El Dorado Pictures develops scripted and unscripted projects under the ABC Studios banner. The production company’s development executive, Mallory Schwartz, oversees the production slate and Baldwin is the executive producer.
What kind of add-on insurance did Rust have? This is apparently the actual policy they took out.
