Authorities may have a deeper insight as to the events on the set of Rust leading up to the accidental shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins by its star Alec Baldwin.

According to Variety, the weapons expert who supplied the guns for the film, Seth Kenney, came forward on October 29th to reveal that the supposed dummy rounds and blanks which were to be used on set were in similar boxes as reloaded ammunition he had received from the same friend who supplied the non-lethal rounds. According to a search warrant affidavit,

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 (sic) a cartridge with the Starline Brass logo on it... He described how the company only sells components of ammunition, and not live ammunition, and therefore it had to be a reloaded round.

In bullet making, a reloaded round is when a new round is repurposed from a spent shell casing. The 24-year-old armorer on set, Hannah Gutierrez Reed, claims to have loaded the gun with five dummy rounds only to have the sixth round not fit into the chamber. After a lunch break, she cleaned the gun and loaded the final round stating she "didn't really check it too much" given that the weapon was locked up during the break. She went on to tell investigators,

We had the gun the whole time before that, and nothing happened, and I wasn't in there, and they weren't even supposed to be pulling the hammer back.

Thell Reed, Hannah's father, said in a statement that he and Kenney were doing live training exercises on a previous film and he asked Kenney to bring extra ammo which Kenney took home at the end of the day. Reed asked him several times to get the ammo back and Kenney told him to "write it off." Included in the live ammo could possibly have been the bullet used on set that tragic day.

Prop master Sarah Zachry stated that the ammunition came from several different sources and that Hannah also brought some from a past project.

After the incident, Alec Baldwin first broke his silence with this statement according to The Independent,

There are no words to convey my shock and sadness regarding the tragic accident that took the life of Halyna Hutchins, a wife, mother and deeply admired colleague of ours.

He continued,

I'm fully cooperating with the police investigation to address how this tragedy occurred and I am in touch with her husband, offering my support to him and his family. My heart is broken for her husband, their son, and all who knew and loved Halyna.

We will continue to cover this event as more information comes to light.

Tags
Halyna Hutchins, Alec Baldwin, Rust