Insisting once again that the malfunctioning pistol shot on its own, Alec Baldwin’s attorney disputes the FBI report that indicates the actor pulled the trigger of the revolver he used to accidently shoot and kill Halyna Hutchins.
The FBI investigation, which was released last week, is the first official assertion that Baldwin had to fire the gun to mortally injure Hutchins, the 42-year-old cinematographer for his Western film Rust.
In a Monday night interview with FOX News, Baldwin’s attorney Luke Nikas maintained that this wasn’t necessarily the case and that the article had been “misconstrued.”
“The FBI report is being interpreted wrong.” When the hammer was pushed back during testing, the pistol only ever shot once without the need to pull the trigger, and the gun cracked in two distinct locations.
The FBI was unable to fire the pistol in any previous test since it was in such bad shape, he said, even while pushing the trigger.
He argued that the reports written by the New Mexican authorities were the only ones that mattered and accurately depicted what occurred.
The medical examiner’s findings, which said that this was a terrible accident, is crucial.
This is the third time that the New Mexico authorities have determined that Alec Baldwin had no power over or knowledge of the allegedly hazardous circumstances on the set and that he mistakenly thought the pistol to be safe after being informed that it was “cold.”
The public release of the FBI findings is still pending.
Nevertheless, ABC News was able to secure a copy of it, and they used it to highlight their main conclusion that the pistol “could not be made to fire without a pull of the trigger while the functioning internal components were intact and operable.”
Prosecutors said they would study the most recent allegations and were awaiting cell phone data from Baldwin’s counsel before deciding whether or not to press charges in the case.
On October 21, as Baldwin was aiming a gun at cinematographer Hutchins, it accidentally discharged, killing Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza.
They had been in a little church while it was being set up for a scene to be filmed.
A spokesperson for Hannah Gutierrez Reed, the armourer in the film, told Fox that she has been used as a “scapegoat” as a result of the shooting.
Additionally, the spokesperson stated that the recently released FBI report “shows 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 and those of Assistant Director Halls, through his attorney, who also said Baldwin didn’t pull the trigger.”
Baldwin’s defence team indicated that the report was more evidence that the shooting was “a terrible accident” and that he should not be charged with a crime.
It is still too early to tell how much weight the medical investigator’s findings will have with the district attorney’s office.
Alec Baldwin’s lawyer, Luke Nikas, said in a statement: “This is the third time the New Mexico authorities have found that he had no authority or knowledge of the allegedly unsafe conditions on the set, that he was told by the person in charge of safety on the set that the gun was “cold,” and believed the gun was safe.”
In a December interview with ABC News, Baldwin said that the revolver he was aiming at Hutchins when it went off on the set of the Western movie “Rust” at her request. He claimed that he did not fire the shot.
The FBI investigation noted that even though the operational internal parts were there and in good condition, the pistol could not be forced to fire without pressing the trigger while the hammer was fully cocked.
Authorities said that as the hammer was being hit during FBI examination of the rifle, pieces of the trigger sear and cylinder stop shattered.
This made it possible for the hammer to drop and the primer to be ignited by the firing pin.
The study noted that this was the sole successful discharge made throughout the testing and that it was due to internal component breakage rather than the failure of the gun or safety devices.
How many times the revolver’s hammer may have been hit during the testing is not evident from the FBI investigation.
The revolver shouldn’t have been loaded for the practise, according to Baldwin, who was also a producer on the film “Rust.”
Live bullets were among the ammo collected from the shooting area, and they were discovered on a cart and in a holster that were within the structure where the shooting took place. Dummy and blank cartridges were also discovered.
In a damning report published in April, New Mexico’s Occupational Health and Safety Bureau documented a story of safety breaches that violated accepted industry procedures, including evidence that production supervisors did little or nothing to resolve two misfires on set before the fatal shooting.
The bureau also kept track of crew members’ unheeded gun safety concerns and said that weapons experts were not permitted to decide on extra safety training.
The medical investigator’s office in New Mexico came to the conclusion that the shooting was an accident and cited “the lack of clear intent to inflict damage or death” and “no convincing proof” that the handgun was purposefully loaded with live bullets on the set.