Crew members of the ill-fated movie Rust, where Alec Baldwin accidentally shot and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins with a loaded prop gun last month, say the set had an 'armorer mentor' who supplied the gun but was not seen during filming.
Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, 24, was recommended for the job by Seth Kenney, a 51-year-old prop expert who's been in the movie business for at least a decade, crew members told the Los Angeles Times.
A crew sheet leaked to the newspaper lists Kenney as an 'armorer mentor,' a title that film crew veterans say is rarely used.
Six people familiar with the filming say Kenney, who owned the PDQ Media Arm & Prop rental company in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, supplied the guns used on set, including the FD Pietta Colt .45 that killed Hutchins.
On October 21, Baldwin fired the gun - which he believed to be 'cold' but was instead loaded with a live bullet - while rehearsing a scene, hitting Hutchins in the chest and piercing director Joel Souza in the shoulder.
Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, 24, was recommended for the film by 'armorer mentor' Seth Kenney, who sources say supplied all the guns for the film
Sources tell the Los Angeles Times that they never saw Kenney at the New Mexico movie set
Alec Baldwin accidentally shot and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on October 21., Above, Baldwin after being questioned at the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office
Hutchins' last words were, 'That was no good. That was no good at all,' eyewitnesses say
The incident is still being investigated by the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office.
Much has been reported about Gutierrez-Reed's lack of experience, though it appears she wasn't solely responsible for the film's weapons.
A key grip on The Old Way, the last film she worked on, said he told the assistant director that Gutierrez-Reed needed to be fired after the second time she fired a gun without a warning.
The film's star, Nicolas Cage, reportedly yelled: 'Make an announcement, you just blew my f**king eardrums out!' before storming off set, according to grip Stu Brumbaugh.
Kenney was added to the Rust crew in late September, the Los Angeles Times reports, though multiple crew members say they never saw him on set.
The armorer has only one other movie credit to his name, serving as a 'weapons consultant' in the 2015 Shia LaBeouf film Man Down, according to IMDb.
Before switching to films, he was an entrepreneur who owned businesses with his wife in San Clemente, California, including a a stationery store, Cheers; a gift shop, Summer House; and the Del Mar Bicycle Co.
Weapons for the independent western film were supplied by Kenney, 51, who is credited as a weapons consultant in the 2015 film Man Down. Above, the entrance to the set of Rust
Much has been reported about Gutierrez-Reed, who was reportedly the source of complaints at her previous job, the upcoming Nicolas Cage-helmed film The Old Way
From 2011 to April 2016, he worked at the Hand Prop Room in Los Angeles, where he helped stock the prop rooms of shows like The Walking Dead and films like Django Unchained.
'He rolled into Hollywood from Orange County in 2011. I met him for the first time when he was working at the Hand Prop firm,' said Django property master Hope M. Parrish.
'I came in to look at their weapons for Django and he was a sales person in the weapons room there. Nice kid.'
The Hand Prop Room eventually sued Kenney in May 2016, claiming he had taken some of their weapons and began stealing their clients for his own business.
He had formed PDQ Media Arm & Prop in Georgia four months earlier, though the company eventually dissolved in 2017, according to state records.
The Hand Prop Room alleged in its tortious interference lawsuit that Kenney was trying to poach the prop master for The Walking Dead, a zombie show that requires a large amount of weapons.
'What the f**k just happened?' Baldwin reportedly asked cast and crew members after the shot went off, and Hutchins suddenly stumbled back into head electrician Serge Svetnoy's arms
Halyna Hutchins, 42, is survived by her son Andros Hutchins, 9, and her husband Matthew
The Hand Prop Room moved to dismiss the case in Mach 2017.
Another source, who dealt with Kenney at the Hand Prop Room told the LA Times: 'He's very knowledgeable in the field. He's a personable person, very good at educating individuals who aren't so good at weapons.
'He customized the weapons for whatever load you're needing, which is very precise, he’s one of the very few who know how to do that. He provided weapons to hundreds of productions when he worked there.'
After shooting Hutchins on October 21, Baldwin reportedly asked, 'What the f**k just happened?'
Hutchins stumbled back into head electrician Serge Svetnoy's arms. Director Joel Souza also hit the deck after being grazed, according to Los Angeles Times interviews with the cast and crew
Kenney, the 'mentor armorer' on Rust, worked at Hand Prop Room in Los Angeles from 2011 to 2016
The prop shop later sued him for allegedly poaching their clients and taking inventory for his own business, though they later dropped the lawsuit
The actor, perplexed by the incident, had been prepping for a scene that involved him drawing and firing the prop gun.
'So,' Baldwin said to Souza before firing the shot, 'I guess I'm gonna take this out, pull it, and go, "Bang!"'
The actor then drew the gun - which he had been assured was safe to use by the film's first assistant director, David Halls, being told it was a 'cold gun' - and fired.
But instead of a blank, a live bullet flew out of the barrel, fatally striking Hutchins in the chest, and exiting her body to also pierce Souza.
'What the f*** was that? That burns!' the director reportedly screamed during the ensuing confusion.
Baldwin, shocked, then proceeded to put the gun down, cast members revealed, and looked at his two savaged colleagues.
'What the f**k just happened?' the actor repeated again.
Then, pandemonium ensued.
'Medic!' someone on the set screamed, The Times Reported, as staffers gathered around Hutchins, who was carefully set to the ground by Svetnoy and was bleeding profusely from her chest.
'I can't feel my legs,' the cinematographer told Svetnoy.
Cast and crew members struggled to stop the bleeding.
At this point, the Times reveals, Hutchins, still conscious at the time, looked up at one of the staffers trying to save her, a boom operator.
'Oh, that was no good,' the sound guy said, taking in the severity of his colleague's injury.
'No,' Hutchins replied, knowingly. 'That was no good. That was no good at all.'
The cinematographer, 42, succumbed to her wounds mere hours later. She is survived by her son Andros Hutchins, 9, and her husband Matthew.
Warrants detailed how during a scene rehearsal, an assistant director on the film, David Halls, allegedly handed Baldwin a loaded .45 revolver.
Gutierrez-Reed explained to detectives she had checked that dummy rounds were in the weapon earlier in the day adding 'no live ammo is ever kept on set.'
The bullet hit Hutchins in the chest and went on to strike director Joel Souza in the shoulder
A cameraman who quit Rust due to safety concerns said that armorer Gutierrez-Reed 'seemed like she was also under a lot of pressure to rush'
Santa Fe Sheriff Adan Mendoza confirmed that a mix of dummy rounds, blanks and real bullets were all found on set.
Dummies and live rounds can sometimes appear almost identical.
Authorities have been attempting to work out who handled the gun before Baldwin fired the fatal shot on October 21.
It's believed the gun came into contact with at least four people in the hours prior to the firing and included Baldwin, Gutierrez-Reed, Halls and the film's prop master Sarah Zachry.
Cameramen Lane Luper, who left the production due to safety concerns, said the armory crew working alongside Gutierrez Reed were 'three inexperienced people'.
'It's fine on a [low-budget production] to have inexperienced people, but your department heads shouldn't be, or people handling firearms shouldn't be,' he told the Hollywood Reporter. 'It seemed like she was also under a
