Evan Agostini / Evan Agostini / Invision / AP
Evan Agostini / Evan Agostini / Invision / AP
In his first interview since a fatal shooting on set Rust, actor Alec Baldwin told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that he didn’t pull the trigger on the gun that killed a cameraman.
Halyna Hutchins died after being airlifted to the hospital, and a film director was injured after a gun went off on October 21 on set in New Mexico.
In a clip released by ABC on Wednesday, Baldwin sheds tears as she recalls how much Hutchins was loved and admired by those who worked with her. The full talk will air on Thursday night.
“You said you weren’t a victim, but is this the worst thing that’s ever happened to you?” Stephanopoulos asked.
Baldwin immediately replied, “Yes.”
When Stephanopoulos mentioned that pulling the trigger wasn’t in the script, Baldwin countered, “The trigger wasn’t pulled, I didn’t pull the trigger.”
He said, “I would never point a gun at anyone and pull the trigger, never.”
Others connected with Rust take a shot talk to Good Morning America Thursday.
Attorney for Dave Halls, Rust’s assistant director, told the show that Halls had also asserted that Baldwin did not pull the trigger. Attorney Lisa Torraco said her client, speaking of Baldwin, told her: “His fingers were never in the trigger guard.”
In the clip interviewing Baldwin, he said he had no idea how a live bullet ended on the set of Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe, NM Earlier this week, the investigator executes the search warrant at PDQ Arm & Prop, LLC, an Albuquerque company that supplied fake firearms and ammunition to Rust the set.
Seth Kenney, an arms supplier and owner of PDQ Prop & Arm, told Good Morning America Fifth, he’s not the only one providing the rings for the movie.
Under a search warrant, longtime Hollywood actor The Reed, the father of Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed, told investigators he also worked on the set with Kenney. On that set, Reed told investigators, the crew trained the actors with live ammunition, and after production, Kenney went into live shoots with him. Reed told investigators those bullets could match those found on the Rust the set.
Kenney, who did not show his face in front of the camera, told Good Morning America on Thursday, Thell Reed’s claim was untenable and any rounds he sent to the sets were individually tested to make sure they weren’t dangerous.
Baldwin, Hannah Gutierrez Reed, Seth Kenney and Dave Halls are all named as defendants in litigation allegation of negligence on the ground Rust.
Gutierrez Reed’s attorneys say they want the investigation to uncover the origins of the live rounds on set. “We also expect that there will be further investigation into the important detail of a new cartridge seen on the day of the shooting,” they wrote in a statement after the search warrant for PDQ Arm & Prop. to be announced.
Authorities continue to investigate the shooting, and have warned against drawing conclusions about what happened.
“If the facts and evidence and the law support the charge, I will prosecute at that time,” Santa Fe County Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said at an October news conference. “I am prosecutors are elected in part because I don’t make hasty decisions and I’m not in a hurry to judge.”
