‘Rust’ Gun Supplier Sues Alec Baldwin Over Halyna Hutchins’ Death

Four years after a gun Alec Baldwin was holding on the set of Rust discharged, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, the movie’s gun supplier is suing Baldwin, seeking compensation and punitive damages. 

Seth Kenney and his company, PDQ Arm & Prop, LLC, which supplies prop guns and blanks to film productions, filed a complaint on Oct. 22 in New Mexico for false light, conversion, unjust enrichment and tortious interference. 

Filing without the aid of lawyers, Kenney alleged that Rust’s producers, including Baldwin, 67, misused the company’s rental property, have failed to remit payment for it, cut corners with safety regulations, and “conspired” to launch a “scapegoat smear campaign” against the company.

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Kenney’s “firearm rental property was in good working order,” he writes in the complaint, and was rented to the Western’s production “under the provisions of the strict safety guidelines and practices; and with the understanding that [producers] would observe and comply with local, state, and federal law.”

Those involved in the Rust incident “violated the rental agreement by allowing the loading, illegal concealment, and discharge of a live round of ammunition,” alleges the complaint.

Additionally, the complaint alleges the incident and its aftermath have caused “egregious financial damage and emotional trauma to” Kenney, causing “ruinous financial losses, injury to reputation within the film community and public at large, severe emotional distress, and significant loss of past, present and future financial income.”

“It’s been devastating,” Kenney said in a new interview with Variety. “It’s not a matter of saving face. There’s nothing left to lose. This whole thing has been s— and I have been the scapegoat.”

Hutchins died at age 42 in October 2021 after a gun Baldwin was holding during Rust rehearsals discharged, striking her and the film’s writer-director, Joel Souza. In July 2024, Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter trial ended by being dismissed with prejudice after his attorneys argued that prosecutors had buried evidence. In March 2024, armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and served 14 months in prison. 

Kenney, who served as a key prosecution witness at both trials, told Variety he has been unable to find work in the industry since the tragedy.

“I’ve gotta say my piece,” he said. “I do have that opportunity to say, ‘Here’s what really went on with a lot of things.’ ”

PEOPLE reached out to Baldwin’s lawyers for comment. They declined to comment to Variety.

Gutierrez-Reed — whom Kenney, speaking to Variety, pinpointed as the one who “started this deadly snowball” — was among those who sued Kenney and his company back in 2022; that lawsuit has since been dropped.

PEOPLE has reached out to Kenney for further comment.

Rust was eventually completed and released in May.