Nearly four years after the fatal “Rust” shooting that claimed the life of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, actor Alec Baldwin is facing renewed legal troubles, this time from the film’s gun supplier, Seth Kenney.
Kenney, who owns PDQ Arm & Prop, has filed a lawsuit against Baldwin and several others, including Hutchins’ widower, Matthew Hutchins, accusing them of defamation and a coordinated smear campaign to scapegoat him after the 2021 tragedy.
According to court filings obtained by TMZ, Kenney, who is representing himself, claims his professional reputation was irreparably damaged by what he describes as “cutthroat Hollywood fixers and media manipulation.” He alleges that Baldwin and the others “conspired to paint [him] in a nationwide false-light smear campaign” to shift blame away from themselves and the production.
Baldwin had previously filed his own lawsuit against Kenney and other crew members in 2022, claiming they failed to ensure safety on set and allowed live ammunition to be delivered and loaded into the firearm. That suit has since been settled, but Kenney is now striking back, arguing that Baldwin and the others misused his company’s firearms and equipment for cost-cutting purposes.
The shooting occurred in October 2021 during a camera rehearsal on the set of the Western film Rust. Baldwin discharged a revolver he believed was “cold”, unloaded and safe to use, killing Halyna Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza. Baldwin has consistently maintained that he did not pull the trigger and had no reason to believe live rounds were present on set.
In a separate criminal case, armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to 18 months in prison, though she was released on parole in May 2025.
Baldwin himself had faced similar charges, but in 2024, the case was dismissed with prejudice after the court ruled that prosecutors had withheld key evidence that could have aided his defense.
Now, with Kenney’s new lawsuit, the Rust tragedy, long a symbol of Hollywood’s safety failures, continues to cast a shadow over Baldwin and others involved in the ill-fated production.
