How can a Gun fire if Alec Baldwin doesn’t pull the trigger?

“The trigger was not pulled. I didn’t pull the trigger,” ABC News stated in this week’s title while promoting an exclusive interview with Alec Baldwin. This is the actor’s first official media interview since the October 21 shooting. kill cameraman Halyna Hutchins on a western set Rust. The notion that someone is somehow holding a weapon did not It created significant social media conversation during the early days of the broadcast and generated countless headlines around the world.

But that statement raised another simple but important question: What?

The gun was in Baldwin’s hands, which no one could dispute. So what caused the circle directly inside to catch on fire? Even the Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza, whose department is investigating the October 21 shooting, expressed doubt about Baldwin’s version of events: “Guns don’t just explode,Mendoza said in an interview with Fox News the day before the full ABC interview aired. “So whatever needed to happen to control the gun, he did it, and it was in his hands.”

When asked for more information as advertising quotes spread, a Baldwin representative said Vanity Fair they would seek comment, but never further elaborate on Baldwin’s words. But in the actor’s full conversation with George Stephanopoulos on Thursday night, Baldwin finally explained it in detail. While he may not have pulled the trigger, he admitted to retracting the hammer on the gun while working with Hutchins to set the scene they were rehearsing.

“She was instructing me how she wanted me to hold the gun at this angle,” Baldwin said in an ABC News interview. “I was holding the gun she told me to hold, which ended up being aimed right under her armpit.”

“I have a gun. I go, ‘Can you see that? Can you see that? Can you see that? ”, the actor added. “And then I let go of the hammer, and the gun went off. I let go of the hammer – the gun went off. ”

The pistol in question, an old school F.lli Pietta Long Colt 45, was inexplicably loaded with a live loop. How that real bullet got into the set and got into the barrel of the pistol is what the sheriff and Santa Fe district attorney, Mary Carmack-Altwies, trying to determine.

Even if Baldwin did not pull the trigger to fire the gun, his description of what happened suggests at least three possible alternatives. Either he didn’t pull the hammer back far enough for it to lock and stay in place, or some movement disturbed the gun and caused the hammer to drop, or there was some mechanical fault in the gun. Those possibilities will be handled by investigators.

Baldwin was in tears throughout the conversation and appeared nervous in the dim light of the interview, with deep pockets visible under his eyes. He describes being haunted by the incident, but also categorically denying any responsibility for Hutchins’ death or the writer-director’s injuries. Joel Souza, who was hit in the shoulder by a bullet after it passed through the camera house.

Stephanopoulos asks Baldwin if he feels guilty. “No. No,” Baldwin replied. “I could have killed myself if I thought I was responsible, and I don’t take it lightly.”

While Baldwin does not explicitly place the blame, he assigns responsibility to the armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed and assistant director Dave’s Hall. “In terms of gun handling, that day I did exactly what I did every day in that movie,” Baldwin said. “Actor’s responsibility is to do what the person in charge of protecting them is supposed to do.”

Baldwin also said he trusted Halls, who he said gave him the weapon and told him it was a “cold gun” — movie jargon for a checked rack and determined to be inert. “Now, what happened there, and why he made that statement, and what fact is, again, I don’t know,” Baldwin told ABC.

He also rejected the notion that he should personally check to make sure the bullets weren’t real. George Clooney was one of those who made that statement publicly. “Every time I deliver a gun on set, every time they give me a gun, I look at it, I open it, I give it to the person I pointed it to, I give it to the crew. , ” Clooney said above Marc Maron‘NS WTF audio file. “Each time take.”

Baldwin scoffed when asked about Clooney’s statement. “If your protocol is that you check your guns all the time, good for you. Good for you,” he told ABC. “My protocol is to trust the person with the job and it has worked up to this point.”

However, he admits that performers can now be as diligent as Clooney says. “The responsibilities of an actor today are very different from the day before,” Baldwin said.

Stephanopoulos asked if, as one of the producers of Rust, Baldwin assumes all responsibility for the hiring of the crew members mentioned. But Baldwin also denied that claim, saying he was just a “creative” producer. “I am not a producer who hires a crew.”

The actor expressed confidence that law enforcement would not consider him responsible either: “I’ve been told internally by well-informed people that it’s very unlikely. I will be criminally charged. ”

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