‘Rust’ supplier may have mistakenly provided live rounds
Authorities say movie star Alec Baldwin was practicing a cross draw in an old church on the Bonanza Creek Ranch movie set when he discharged a live round from a Colt .45 revolver, killing Halyna Hutchins, 42, and wounding Joel Souza, 48.
Court records state assistant director David Halls had declared the firearm “cold,” meaning unloaded, before handing it to Baldwin.
Halls later told deputies he hadn’t checked the gun properly and couldn’t recall if Gutierrez had either.
The investigation by the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office has centered around how the live ammunition got onto the set and where it came from.
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The affidavit offers two possible explanations for how the ammunition got on set.
On Oct. 29, Kenney called deputies and told them he may know where the live ammunition came from. Kenney said “a few years back” he got reloaded ammunition from a friend and noticed the casing that killed Hutchins had a Starline logo on it.
A few weeks later, Thell Reed, Gutierrez-Reed’s father, told deputies that in August or September Kenney asked him to bring live ammunition for actors doing a live-fire training at a firearms range outside the state. Reed said he brought an ammo can with hundreds of rounds – including Colt .45 – and Kenney took it back to New Mexico with him afterward.
“After several attempts to get it back from (Kenney), (Kenney) advised (Reed) to ‘write it off,'” a deputy wrote in the affidavit. “(Reed) stated this ammunition may match the ammunition found on the set of Rust.”
