Baldwin denies pulling trigger in first TV interview since shooting

In first TV interview since the film set tragedy, Alec Baldwin insists: ‘I’d never point a gun at anyone and pull a trigger’ | WATCH

Alec Baldwin has insisted he never pulled the trigger of the gun in the fatal accident on his film set and had no idea how it came to be loaded with live ammunition.

Halyna Hutchins, 42, a cinematographer, was fatally injured when a revolver held by Baldwin discharged during production of the western Rust in New Mexico on October 21.

Joel Souza, the director, was wounded by the bullet after it passed through Hutchins, a married mother of one who died on the way to hospital. Baldwin had been told by an assistant director that the gun was safe when it was given to him during rehearsals, according to police records.

In his first in-studio interview since the shooting, Baldwin, 63, said: “The trigger wasn’t pulled. I didn’t pull the trigger.” Asked by George Stephanopoulos of ABC News to confirm the statement, Baldwin reiterated: “No, no, no. I would never point a gun at anyone and pull a trigger at them. Never.”

Alec Baldwin with his wife, Hilaria in Vermont. Picture: Backgrid,

The sheriff of Santa Fe county is investigating how live ammunition came to be on the set. Baldwin, who as well as being the star of Rust served as its producer, told ABC News that he had “no idea” how the gun ended up loaded with a real bullet. “Someone put a live bullet into a gun,” he said. “A bullet that wasn’t even supposed to be on the property.”

Baldwin broke down in tears while recalling the events. “I mean, even now, I find it hard to believe that. It just doesn’t seem real to me,” he said. Asked if the shooting was “the worst thing that’s ever happened to you”, Baldwin said: “Yes. Yes. Yes. Because I think back and I think of what could I have done?”

The full interview will be broadcast in the US on Friday. This week, police investigating the shooting searched a firearms and ammunition supplier in Albuquerque, New Mexico’s most populous city. The search took place after someone linked to the production said he “may know” where the live rounds came from.

A search warrant released on Tuesday gave new details about the handling and loading of the gun before it was given to Baldwin by David Halls, an assistant director.

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the 24-year-old armourer on Rust, loaded the weapon with five dummy rounds but struggled to add a sixth before a lunch break, when the revolver was locked in a truck, according to police. The final round was added after the break when the gun was cleaned, according to the warrant.

No criminal charges have been brought but investigators previously said that there had been “some complacency” with gun safety on the set. Police found about 500 rounds of ammunition on the set, a mix of blanks, dummies and suspected live rounds.

Baldwin and his fellow producers are being sued by colleagues over the shooting, which took place at the Bonanza Creek Ranch, 20km south of Santa Fe.

The actor previously got out of his car to speak to reporters about Hutchins’s death while travelling with his wife and children in Vermont at the end of October. He described the event as a “one-in-a-trillion episode” and said he was co-operating with the authorities.

The Times