Alec Baldwin told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos in an interview airing Thursday that he did not pull the trigger on a prop gun he was holding on a New Mexico film set when it went off, killing a cinematographer.
“I didn’t pull the trigger,” Baldwin said. “I would never point a gun at anyone and pull the trigger at them. Never.”
It is Baldwin’s first sitdown interview since the Oct. 21 shooting on the set of the western film “Rust.” Authorities have said Baldwin was told the gun was safe to handle but continue to investigate how a live round ended up in the weapon.
ABC released a clip Wednesday that shows Baldwin breaking down in tears while describing Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer who was killed on the set. Director Joel Souza was also wounded.
He said in response to a question about how a live round ended up on the set: “I have no idea. “Someone put a live bullet in a gun, a bullet that wasn’t even supposed to be on the property.”
The interview will air as part of an hourlong special on ABC at 8 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday and stream on Hulu later that evening.
Investigators have described “some complacency” in how weapons were handled on the “Rust” set. They have said it is too soon to determine whether charges will be filed, amid independent civil lawsuits concerning liability in the fatal shooting.
ABC said a two-hour special “20/20” next week will examine the investigation into the shooting in more depth.
(AP News)
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7 Responses
Funny how this excuse just came now. So the gun went off just as he was holding it and pointed it at a person which was not in the script.
Of course he pulled the trigger. Guns don’t go off by themselves. And the fact that he was told the gun was safe is irrelevant; it was his responsibility to check it personally, and even then not to point it at anything he wasn’t willing to destroy, and not to put his finger inside the trigger guard, until it was time for his scene.
Its funny how news agents interview murderers
And OJ Simpson didn’t brutally murder the white Jewish Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown. I hope the police and FBI find the real killers soon.
He’s a murderer.
I could not understand why this news event got so much attention and drew so many comments, and then I remembered that Baldwin portrayed Donald Trump very effectively on the TV show Motzi Shabbos Live. The little I know about Baldwin is that he is a poorly behaved jerk, has gotten into arguments or fights on airplanes, got into arguments with NYC cops, and otherwise exhibits the bad traits of arrogant actors. It is premature to call him a murderer. I believe an investigation by the relevant authorities is under way.
UJM, he’s not a murderer, but he is a manslaughterer. He ignored the most basic rule of gun safety, which is that “There is no such thing as an unloaded gun”. Even if you unloaded a gun yourself, you must treat it as if it were loaded. That is the first thing every shooter is taught, and he had surely been taught it too, but he ignored it and someone is dead.