"I Didn't Pull the Trigger"... Alec Baldwin's Testimony Increases the Mystery of the Murder Case of a Photographer (Rust)
Actor Alec Baldwin said he did not pull the trigger on the gun that killed photographer Helena Hutchins on the set of "Rust," while investigators in New Mexico focused on figuring out how live ammunition got on the set.
In his first full interview, Baldwin spoke about the shooting incident that occurred on October 21 when he was holding a gun that was reported to be safe to use.
"Well, the trigger wasn't pulled, I didn't pull the trigger," the actor told ABC television journalist George Stephanpolis, according to an excerpt broadcast last Wednesday from the interview scheduled to be broadcast in full on Thursday.
“I would never have pointed a gun at someone and pulled the trigger.
Absolutely".
Photographer Hutchins was killed and director Joel Sousa was injured, in an accident that Baldwin previously described as tragic, on the set of a scene from the movie near Santa Fe, one of the Western films.
The Santa Police Department said it had no comment on Baldwin's statement.
It is not known if the authorities are behind the accidental shooting scenario.
No criminal charges were brought.
Investigators are focusing their efforts on figuring out how live ammunition got to the site rather than fake bullets.
Court documents showed that they found "Rust" film documents and suspected live ammunition for a pistol similar to the one Baldwin was using during this week's search of the premises of an arms supplier for filming locations.
Court documents said the supplier, Seth Kenny, had previously told police that he believed the live bullets found on the set may have been "reloaded ammunition" he had previously obtained from a friend.
Reloaded ammunition consists of recycled components including lead.
Baldwin, best known for playing a cocky network TV CEO on the sitcom "30 Rock", has been in hiding since the accident.
Stefanpolis (ABC) said before broadcasting the interview that Baldwin, the hero of Rast and among his producers, also "explained in detail what happened on the set that day."
Two of the film's crew have filed civil suits accusing Baldwin, the film's producers and others in the production of neglect and lax enforcement of safety protocols.
The producers said they were conducting an internal investigation into the incident.
And in an exciting chapter of the incident, Mimi Mitchell, who supervised the script of “Rust” earlier, blew up a surprise in one of the lawsuits, saying that the script of the film never required shooting from a pistol during the scene that Baldwin was rehearsing when he killed the photographer last month.
Mitchell claimed that Baldwin should have verified for himself that the gun did not contain live ammunition and not rely solely on the assistant director's assertion that the gun was safe to use.
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Alec Baldwin