Alec Baldwin: 'I didn't pull the trigger' on shot that killed cinematographer, wounded one other

"The trigger wasn’t pulled, I didn’t pull the trigger," Alec Baldwin said in an interview.
Alec Baldwin speaks for the first time regarding the accidental shooting that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, and wounded director Joel Souza on the set of the film "Rust", on October 30, 2021 in Manchester, Vermont. The actor, his wife and children pulled over to the side of the road and gave an unscheduled statement after being pursued by photographers and members of the press. (Photo by MEGA/GC Images)
By Madeleine Hubbard

Alec Baldwin told an interviewer for a forthcoming television program that he did not pull the trigger on the prop gun when it fired a fatal bullet into the cinematographer on a New Mexico film set.

“I didn’t pull the trigger,” Baldwin told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.

ABC News tweeted a montage of the interview Wednesday, which is set to air fully on Thursday evening.

On Oct. 21, cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed and director Joel Souza was wounded in a shooting on the New Mexico set of the western film. 

This is the first in-depth interview Baldwin has done with the media since the incident.

Stephanopoulos said, “it wasn’t in the script, for the trigger to be pulled.”

Baldwin replied, “Well, the trigger wasn’t pulled, I didn’t pull the trigger.”

“So you never pulled the trigger?” Stephanopoulos asked.

“No, no, no, no, no, I would never point a gun at anyone and pull the trigger,” Baldwin answered.

When asked how a real bullet made it on set, Baldwin said, “I have no idea. Someone put a live bullet in a gun, a bullet that wasn’t even supposed to be on the property.”

Last month, attorneys for the film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, told “Today” that the live bullets may have been planted with “the purpose of sabotaging the set."