Downcast Alec Baldwin keen to shift blame in shooting

The devastated actor has been spotted with his family in a small US town, a day after appearing to make an attempt to clear his name.

Alec Baldwin has been spotted lying low with his family in a quiet New England town – after police investigating the actor’s deadly on-set shooting said they were “not exactly sure” where he is.

Photos posted by TMZ on Thursday seem to confirm the 63-year-old actor has left New Mexico, where he accidentally shot and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins last week while rehearsing a shooting scene for his movie Rust.

Baldwin was spotted with his family in a small town in southern Vermont. Picture: Backgrid Australia

Baldwin was spotted on Sunday in Manchester, a small town in southern Vermont, the photos show.

Baldwin, dressed completely in black and dark grays, looked sullen and downcast in the photos as he walked with wife Hilaria, 37, and their kids.

The family picked up lunch from a local food outlet. Picture: Backgrid Australia

They had just picked up lunch from a pizza joint, which TMZ did not identify, but appeared to be Christo’s Pizza and Pasta. A staffer would not confirm the visit to The Post when contacted by phone Thursday.

Hilaria has deep New England roots, having admitted during her heritage scandal late last year that she was not Spanish but “a white girl” from Boston.

The Post had caught Baldwin’s children and cat leaving their Manhattan home on Friday, a day after the shooting, as they appeared to have travelled to meet the troubled star.

Baldwin appears keen to shift blame

It comes as Baldwin appears eager to shift the focus from his on-set deadly shooting onto the assistant director who handed him the gun loaded with live ammunition.

Late on Wednesday, he tweeted out a news story about AD David Halls’ admission that he “should have checked” all the rounds in the gun before handing it to Baldwin on the New Mexico set.

The story — based on a new affidavit released that day — also stressed that Halls’ apparent oversight came “before he handed a revolver that he had declared ‘cold’ to Alec Baldwin,” meaning the weapon did not have live ammo.

The Hollywood star, who is also a producer of the doomed Western, retweeted the story without making any additional comments.

But it is the second such story he has shared, with an earlier one also stressing that he was told the “prop gun was safe,” though cops later said the weapon held real ammo.

A distraught Baldwin was photographed lingering in the car park outside the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s offices on Camino Justicia after being questioned about the shooting. Picture: Jim Weber/Santa Fe New Mexican

The latest Baldwin sighting emerged just hours after Santa Fe Sheriff Adan Mendoza told a press conference that he was “not exactly sure” of the actor’s “present whereabouts”.

He stressed that the star had been co-operating with the investigation and was not required to stay in New Mexico.

Officials refused to rule out charges against the actor over Thursday’s shooting, confirming that Baldwin is “an active part of this investigation”.

“He is obviously the person that fired the weapon,” Sheriff Mendoza said.

Halyna Hutchins was killed in the tragic accident. Picture: Fred Hayes/Getty Images for SAGindie

Baldwin had also confirmed that he was “fully co-operating with the police investigation” in his message on Friday, in which he said his “heart is broken” for Hutchins’ husband and son.

“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,” Baldwin said.

His wife also shared a message about her “shock and heartbreak”.

“My heart is with Halyna,” Hilaria wrote on Instagram. “Her husband. Her son. Their family and loved ones. And my Alec.”

This article originally appeared in the New York Post and was reproduced with permission