In his first interview since a fatal shooting on the set of the film Rust, actor Alec Baldwin told ABC's George Stephanopoulos that he didn't pull the trigger of the gun that killed a cinematographer.
Halyna Hutchins died after being helicoptered to a hospital, and a film director was injured after the gun went off on Oct. 21 on the set in New Mexico.
In a clip released by ABC on Wednesday, Baldwin breaks down in tears as he recalls how much Hutchins was loved and admired by people who worked with her. The full conversation airs Thursday evening.
"You said you're not a victim, but is this the worst thing that's ever happened to you?" Stephanopoulos asks.
Baldwin immediately replies: "Yes."
When Stephanopoulos mentions that it wasn't in the script for the trigger to be pulled, Baldwin counters, "The trigger wasn't pulled, I didn't pull the trigger."
He says, "I would never point a gun at anyone and pull the trigger, never."
Others connected to the Rust shooting spoke with Good Morning America Thursday.
The attorney for Dave Halls, Rust's assistant director, told the show that Halls has also maintained that Baldwin didn't pull the trigger. Lawyer Lisa Torraco said her client, speaking about Baldwin, told her: "His finger was never in the trigger guard."
In the clip of Baldwin's interview, he says he has no idea how a real bullet ended up on the set at Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe, N.M. Earlier this week, investigators executed a search warrant at PDQ Arm & Prop, LLC, a company in Albuquerque that provided guns and dummy rounds to the Rust set.
Seth Kenney, an arms vendor and owner of PDQ Prop & Arm, told Good Morning America Thursday that he wasn't the only one who provided rounds to the film.
According to the search warrant, longtime Hollywood armorer Thell Reed, the father of Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed, told investigators that he, too, had previously worked on a film set with Kenney. On that film set, Reed told investigators, the crew trained actors with live ammunition, and after production, Kenney took the live rounds with him. Reed told investigators that those rounds could match those found on the Rust set.
Kenney, who did not show his face on camera, told Good Morning America on Thursday Thell Reed's claims were not possible, and any rounds he sends to sets are individually tested to ensure they're not dangerous.
Baldwin, Hannah Gutierrez Reed, Seth Kenney and Dave Halls are all named as defendants in lawsuits alleging negligence on the set of Rust.
Gutierrez Reed's lawyers say they want the investigation to uncover where the live rounds on set came from. "We also hope that there will be further investigation into the important detail about a new ammunition box seen on set the day of the shooting," they wrote in a statement after the search warrant for PDQ Arm & Prop was released.
Authorities continue to investigate the shooting, and have cautioned against jumping to conclusions about what happened.
"If the facts and evidence and law support charges, then I will initiate prosecution at that time," Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said at a press conference in October. "I am a prosecutor that was elected in part because I do not make rash decisions and I do not rush to judgment."
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