Photo: Courtesy of Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office
Prosecutors in the case said they have not decided whether to file any charges in the case and that they would review these new reports and are waiting for cell phone data from attorneys for 64-year-old Baldwin, according to theAssociated Press.
The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment Tuesday.
The revolver at the center of this case, when “intact and functional,” “could not be made to fire without a pull of the trigger” unless the hammer was “de-cocked on a loaded chamber” and “the hammer was struck directly,” according to the FBI report.
Jae C Hong/AP/Shutterstock
In December 2021, Baldwin said in an interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos that he “didn’t pull the trigger” on the gun during the Oct. 21 incident. “The trigger wasn’t pulled. Ididn’t pull the trigger. I would never point a gun at someone and pull the trigger on them, never,” Baldwin said at the time.
Baldwin appeared onChris Cuomo’sThe Chris Cuomo Projectpodcastin an episode published Tuesday and said that he did not fire the weapon, citing reports issued on the investigation.
“This did not come from me. This came from the [district attorney’s] office themselves. You’re familiar with what fanning a gun is, have you heard of that phrase, fanning a gun?” Baldwin told Cuomo, 52, before describing the technique common in Western films.
“The hammer didn’t lock,” Baldwin said. “You pulled it back to an extent where it would fire the bullet without you pulling the trigger. Without you locking the hammer.”
“The hammer didn’t lock,” Baldwin told Cuomo. “You pulled it back to an extent where it would fire the bullet without you pulling the trigger,” he said, then apparently corrected himself, adding, “without you locking the hammer.”
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“The man who’s the principal safety officer on the set of the film declared that the gun was safe when he handed it to me,” he continued. “The person who was the principal safety officer of the film declared in front of the entire assemblage, ‘This is a cold gun.’ "
“Now, why did he say that? If he didn’t know, if he hadn’t checked?” Baldwin asked. “The point is, all of us were told that everything was cool and you can relax and and we’re working with a gun that’s safe to rehearse with.”
On Friday, Luke Nikas, an attorney for Baldwin, said in a statement toABC Newsthat the FBI report is “being misconstrued.”
“The gun fired in testing only one time — without having to pull the trigger — when the hammer was pulled back and the gun broke in two different places,” Nikas said. “The FBI was unable to fire the gun in any prior test, even when pulling the trigger, because it was in such poor condition.”
Alec Baldwin.Mark Sagliocco/Getty Images
“Based on all available information, including the absence of obvious intent to cause harm or death, the manner of death is best classified as accident,” the report concluded.
In April, New Mexicoworkplace safety regulators issued a fine of over $135,000to Rust Movie Productions, LLC for “plain indifference to the recognized hazards associated with the use of firearms on set that resulted in a fatality, severe injury and unsafe working conditions.”
source: people.com
