Alec Baldwin pulled the trigger, toldyaso
FBI forensics report shows actor lied about how he killed Halyna Hutchins on the ‘Rust’ set
Actor Alec Baldwin repeatedly said he did not pull the trigger of the gun when he shot and killed his cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on Oct. 21, 2021. Now the FBI forensics report of the “Rust” movie shooting reportedly says the revolver "could not be made to fire without a pull of the trigger."
This is not a huge surprise, but it confirms that Baldwin has been lying to law enforcement and the public about a key piece of the investigation.
It also makes it more bizarre that the District Attorney for the case, Mary Carmack-Altwies, did her own unofficial test to prove Baldwin could be telling the truth about not pulling the trigger.
Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza side he got the FBI forensics analysis two weeks ago and gave it to the medical examiner.
FBI forensics:
ABC News, which is the only media outlet to have interviewed Baldwin about the shooting, also somehow exclusively got the FBI report on Friday. (That’s not a coincidence.)
According to ABC, the report says that whether the hammer on the revolver was partly or fully cocked, the gun "could not be made to fire without a pull of the trigger while the working internal components were intact and functional."
The lawyer for the movie’s armorer, Hannah Guitterez-Reed, released a statement. “The newly released FBI reports show the revolver was in good working order and that Baldwin had to have pulled the trigger to fire the revolver, directly contradicting his prior statements,” said Jason Bowles.
I asked the FBI for a copy of the report. The response is below for paid subscribers. I’ve also asked the sheriff’s spokesman for it.
Trigger lie to the media/public
As I wrote in early December, Baldwin did an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC News about shooting Hutchins, 42, and director Joel Souza, 48, on the Santa Fe movie set. The actor said this:
BALDWIN: The trigger wasn’t pulled — I didn’t pull the trigger.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So you never pulled the trigger?
BALDWIN: No no no no. I would never point a gun at anyone and and pull a trigger at them,
And again!
BALDWIN: The trigger was never pulled. I never pulled the trigger.
BALDWIN: I would never point a gun at anyone and pull a trigger at them. Never. Never. That was the training that I had. You never point a gun at someone and pull the trigger.”
He also said this:
BALDWIN: I let go of the hammer - bang, the gun goes off.
He’s a good actor. He lies very well. Watch:
District Attorney defends the trigger excuse:
The D.A. in Santa Fe gave an interview to the celebrity lifestyle magazine “Vanity Fair” in February. Carmack-Altwies said that she wanted to see for herself if Baldwin told the truth to ABC about not pulling the trigger.
She said she conducted an “unofficial test” with a similar revolver owned by her staff. She told the magazine:
You can pull the hammer back without actually pulling the trigger and without actually locking it. So you pull it back partway, it doesn’t lock, and then if you let it go, the firing pin can hit the primer of the bullet.
The magazine then wrote, “And that can cause a live round of ammunition to fire.”
It sure seemed Carmack-Altwies wanted to find a way to let Baldwin off the hook, despite his ignoring all gun safety rules.
Baldwin cocked the gun
The FBI analysis says the hammer position and his trigger pull made the gun fire.
In my analysis of Baldwin's interview with the sheriff’s detectives right after the shooting, I pointed out that Baldwin deliberately cocked the gun (pulled back the hammer) while aiming it at Hutchins. He said this:
So I always aim to go away. But she was there. And in the rehearsal, he wanted to pull out the gun and cock the gun. And if you’re assuming you have a cold gun, there’s no problem.
Here’s the full video of his interview with the deputies.
Finger on the trigger
In late April, the sheriff’s office released videos, photos, and evidence to the media. In one video of a rehearsal from the same day as the shooting, Baldwin had his finger on the trigger. I uploaded it below (the red arrow is mine):
You see he did a cross-draw maneuver, which means he used his right hand to pull out the gun from a holster on the left side.
The armorer’s lawyer said Baldwin “ignored Hannah’s requests to do specific cross draw training which would include never having his finger on the trigger during the cross draw and never pointing the weapon at anyone.”
Why the trigger lie:
One theory is Baldwin didn’t realize he did it. I interviewed Michael Cargill, the owner of Central Texas Gun Works, who is a handgun and private security instructor.
The very first thing people say when a gun discharges is that they didn’t touch the trigger. It’s a common mistake for new people. It’s unconscious. They truly believe they didn’t have their finger on the trigger.
Another less innocuous theory, as I reported last year, a legal expert on firearms crimes told me that the trigger issue was a way for Baldwin to set up his civil defense against the lawsuits from the victims:
This is the product liability defense — ‘I didn’t pull the trigger it just went off by itself.
We see this in cases against gun companies all the time.”
In fact, Baldwin’s lawyer has been going along with the trigger story for him. In the civil lawsuit with Hutchins’s husband, the actor’s lawyers wrote in a filing:
Baldwin then pulled back the hammer, but not far enough to actually cock the gun. When Baldwin let go of the hammer, the gun went off.
Baldwin’s lawyer Luke Nikas did not respond to my request for comment.
Death investigation continues
Ten months of investigating when there is no question who shot Hutchins is strange.
Since March, the sheriff’s spokesman Juan Rios has told me their death investigation is stalled until they get two things: the FBI sends the forensic analysis of the gun and ammunition….