Actor Alec Baldwin said he did not pull the trigger on the gun he was holding before a live bullet struck and killed a cinematographer and injured a director on the set of “Rust,” according to an excerpt from an “ABC News” interview released on Wednesday.
“The trigger wasn’t pulled,” he said in the excerpt which was shared on Twitter. “I didn’t pull the trigger.”
In the interview clip, Baldwin said he does not know how a live bullet wound up on the set of the Western, which was being filmed at the Bonanza Creek Ranch in Sante Fe, New Mexico.
Law enforcement is still investigating the incident, which killed Halyna Hutchins, 42, and injured Joel Souza, 48, in late October. Charges have not been filed. According to court documents, an assistant director handed a loaded weapon to Baldwin and indicated to him it was safe to use. A search warrant filed in a Santa Fe court shows that the assistant director did not know the prop gun was loaded with live rounds.
In a statement issued a day after the fatal incident, Baldwin said that his “heart is broken” for Hutchins’ family.
“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,” he wrote on Twitter on Oct. 22. He said he was cooperating with police.
The shooting spurred a call for additional safety measures and working conditions on movie sets.
