If Alec Baldwin 'didn't pull the trigger,' how did gun fire?

2021-12-31 11:00:38 By : Ms. Amanda Cheung

Alec Baldwin wept as he described shooting and killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of his Western film “Rust,” but said during an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that he “didn’t pull the trigger.”

A teaser for the interview, which airs Thursday night, was posted on Twitter Wednesday and showed an emotional Baldwin describing the Oct. 21 shooting of Hutchins as the worst thing that’s ever happened to him.

“I think back, I think: ‘What could I have done?'” Baldwin said, who has previously describe the shooting as a “tragic accident.”

The teaser also showed Baldwin nodding his head and wiping away a tear as Stephanopoulos said: “But the gun was in your hands. How do you come to terms with that?”

The first interview since the fatal accident on the "Rust" set.

The exclusive event airs tomorrow at 8 pm ET on @ABC and later on @Hulu. https://t.co/NpBZKlUp3S pic.twitter.com/548IYOsGXF

— Good Morning America (@GMA) December 1, 2021

Stephanopoulos furthermore pressed Baldwin on the claim that “it wasn’t in the script” for the Colt .45 revolver to be fired during the gunfight scene he was rehearsing when Hutchins was shot.

“Well, the trigger wasn’t pulled, I didn’t pull the trigger,” Baldwin, 63, said. “I would never point a gun at anyone and pull a trigger at them, never.”

The teaser cut away after Stephanopoulos asked, “So, what do you think happened?”

People will therefore need to watch the primetime ABC special to see if Baldwin can explain how the gun nonetheless discharged, as was described by sheriff’s investigators in Santa Fe County, New Mexico, where the low-budget film was being shot.

At attorney for Dave Halls, the film’s assistant, told ABC News Thursday morning that her client didn’t see Baldwin pull the trigger and believes it was “a misfire.” Lisa Torraco said Halls told her “from day one” that Baldwin didn’t pull the trigger and that “his finger was never in the trigger guard.”

But Adan Mendoza, the sheriff of Santa Fe County who is leading the investigation, told Fox News Digital: “Guns don’t just go off. So whatever needs to happen to manipulate the firearm, he did that and it was in his hands.”

The sheriff’s department is awaiting results from the FBI which would shed light on how the gun could have been fired, “whether that was just pulling back the hammer – which hits the firing pin – just pulling the trigger or both,” Fox News Digital also reported.

Prior to Hutchins’ death, crew members had raised concerns about safety on the set, including two accidental discharges of prop guns, the Los Angeles Times reported. Several days before Hutchins’ death, Baldwin’s stunt double accidentally fired two rounds after being told that the gun was “cold,” meaning it didn’t contain blanks or other ammunition.

But people also will need to watch the ABC special to see how Baldwin responds to Stephanopoulos’ question about comments made by actor George Clooney, who said that he always checks any gun himself that is handed to him to use as a prop in a movie scene.

During an interview last month on Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast, Clooney said he wouldn’t have just taken someone else’s word that the gun was safe.

“Maybe Alec did that (checked the gun himself) — hopefully he did do that,” Clooney added. “But the problem is dummies are tricky because they look like real (rounds). They got a little tiny hole in the back (from which) somebody’s (removed) the gunpowder.”

As investigators reported, a suspected live round was discharged from Baldwin’s gun, hitting Hutchins, 42, and director Joel Souza, 48, fatally wounding Hutchins, the mother of a 9-year-old boy, and injuring Souza.

Investigators are trying to determine how a live round ended up on the set, when only dummy rounds were supposed to be used.

“Someone put a live bullet in the gun — a bullet that wasn’t even supposed to be on the property,” Baldwin told Stephanopoulos.

New details emerged this week that may shed light on how the round ended up on the set. According to an affidavit for a search warrant, investigators are looking into companies that supplied the ammunition, NPR and USA Today reported. The warrant said the ammunition came from various sources, including an Albuquerque-based supplier called PDQ Arm & Prop LLC.

Seth Kenney, the owner of PDQ Arm & Prop, told investigators that the live round may have been “reloaded ammunition,” which is made up of recycled bullet components, and which may have come from another company that manufactures dummy rounds and blanks his business supplies to movie sets, USA Today reported. Other pieces of ammunition were brought to the set by head armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed from a previous production, NPR reported.

Baldwin both starred in the low-budget film and was one of its several producers, a distinction that has already opened him up to two lawsuits filed by crew members alleging negligence.

“Even now I find it hard to believe, it just doesn’t seem real to me,” Baldwin also said.

On Good Morning America Wednesday, Stephanopoulos said the interview, which was recorded Tuesday afternoon, was the “most intense” he has done in his career.

“It is so raw,” Stephanopoulos said. “I mean, as you can imagine he’s devastated. But he was also very candid, he was very forthcoming, he answered every question. He talked about Halyna Hutchins, talked about meeting with her family as well.”

Stephanopoulos also said Baldwin “went through in detail what happened on the set that day.”

Because the shooting is still under investigation, Baldwin has previously said that he was “ordered” by authorities to not say anything publicly about the incident. But for some reason, he is not heeding that “order” and is talking to ABC News.

Baldwin is the subject of a criminal investigation, as is Halls and 24-year-old Gutierrez Reed, who was working on her second film as head armorer.

The sheriff’s department has said in court documents that prop master Sarah Zachary removed the gun from a locked props truck and gave it to Gutierrez Reed, Yahoo News reported. The armorer loaded it with rounds from a box of dummies, but one of the rounds was apparently a live round.

Gutierrez Reed said she showed the gun to Halls, who has admitted he didn’t thoroughly inspect it before giving it to Baldwin and telling him it was safe.

Related Articles Dionne Warwick in Twitter battle with Oreo Omicron surge not stopping Savannah Guthrie’s birthday bash on New Year’s Eve Missing business manager to Nicki Minaj, Kardashians and other stars, discovered dead in Southern California Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver divorce final after 10 years 50 things we know now that we didn’t know last January Celebrity attorney Gloria Allred, who is representing script supervisor Marnie Mitchell in her suit against Baldwin and others involved in the film, has accused the actor of playing “Russian roulette” by handling the gun without checking it himself or without having the armorer do so in his presence.

“He had no right to rely upon some alleged statement by the assistant director that it was a ‘cold gun,’” Mitchell’s lawsuit said, adding: “Mr. Baldwin cannot hide behind the assistant director to attempt to excuse the fact that he did not check the gun himself.”

Mitchell’s lawsuit furthermore said that the script didn’t call for any gun to be discharged in the scene, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

This story has been updated to include statements from the Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza and the attorney for Dave Halls. 

Get Morning Report and other email newsletters