Alec Baldwin pulled the trigger of the gun that killed a cinematographer on the Rust movie set, an FBI forensics report has concluded.
Baldwin accidentally shot Halyna Hutchins on the New Mexico set of the Western in October 2021 with what he believed was an unloaded “cold gun” handed to him as he was about to film a scene.
The gun discharged one bullet which struck and killed Hutchins, 42, and also injured the film’s director, Joel Souza.
Since the fatal incident Baldwin, 64, has denied pulling the trigger of the gun and said that it had gone off on its own.
“The trigger wasn’t pulled,” he said in a December interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. “I didn’t pull the trigger.”
The FBI report, which was obtained by ABC News, states that in accidental discharge testing it was found that the .45 Colt caliber F.lli Pietta single-action revolver could not have fired without the trigger being pulled.
It is unclear if the FBI tested the exact weapon from the accident, or an identical one.
Investigators who did the testing concluded that with its hammer in the quarter-cock and half-cock positions it “could not be made to fire without a pull of the trigger.”
The report also stated that with the hammer fully cocked the weapon “could not be made to fire without a pull of the trigger while the working internal components were intact and functional.”
The FBI found that if the gun was loaded with the hammer de-cocked it could detonate a primer “without a pull of the trigger when the hammer was struck directly.”
The report is part of the criminal investigation into the shooting, and the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office says it has received it and other FBI documents related to it.
Hutchins’ death has been ruled an accident, according to the postmortem report of the New Mexico Office of The Medical Investigator.
“Death was caused by a gunshot wound of the chest. Review of available law enforcement reports showed no compelling demonstration that the firearm was intentionally loaded with live ammunition on set,” the report stated according to ABC News.
“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.”
No decision has yet been made by prosecutors on whether Baldwin, or anyone else, will face criminal charges in this said that its detectives were still waiting on phone records from Baldwin.
