Baldwin says he didn't see any security issues on the set of "Rust" 1:13
(CNN) —-
Alec Baldwin says he doesn't think he or anyone else will face criminal charges for last year's fatal shooting on the set of "Rust," a tragic episode he says has "taken years" out of him. life and it has taken its toll on him professionally.
Prosecutors awaiting the investigative report from the Santa Fe Sheriff's Office will weigh evidence in the Oct. 21, 2021 shooting on the movie's Old West set outside Santa Fe, New Mexico, to determine if They file charges.
Baldwin and crew members were rehearsing a scene in a rustic church when a prop gun in the actor's hand went off, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.
Investigations into the tragedy have focused on how a live bullet ended up on a movie set.
The perhaps forbidden topic in the talk between Alec Baldwin and Woody Allen
In his interview with CNN, Baldwin blamed the tragedy on Hannah Gutierrez Reed, who served as a gunsmith and prop assistant on the film, and assistant director Dave Halls, who handed him the gun.
Through their respective attorneys, both Gutierrez Reed and Halls accused Baldwin of shifting the blame onto others.
"Someone put a live bullet in the gun and that person should know the risk," Baldwin said.
"That was [Gutierrez Reed's] job. His job was to look at the ammunition and put in the dummy round or the blank round, and there weren't supposed to be any real rounds on set."
"There are two people who didn't do what they were supposed to do," he added.
"I'm not sitting here saying that I want them to, you know, go to prison, or that I want their lives to be hell. I don't want that, but I want everyone to know that those are the two people who are responsible for what happened."
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According to an administrative complaint filed this month by the New Mexico Environment Department's office of occupational safety and health against the production company, Gutierrez Reed told Halls to alert her when Baldwin arrived so she could conduct a safety check on her firearm.
The complaint goes on to say that the gunsmith left the church "expecting to be notified by Mr. Halls when Mr. Baldwin arrived."
Instead, the complaint says, Halls handed the revolver directly to Baldwin.
They publish a video of the interrogation of Alec Baldwin after the shooting of the filming of "Rust"
"Why didn't [Gutierrez Reed] check that bullet? Why didn't Halls listen to it?" Baldwin adds.
"Why did he give me the gun? Why didn't he check? Why did he tell the crew [it was a cold weapon]?"
Baldwin also wondered aloud if Seth Kenney, the movie's prop supplier, accidentally provided real bullets to the "Rust" set.
An FBI report released last week said 150 rounds of live ammunition were found on the set.
CNN has reached out to Kenney for comment.
"We agree with Mr. Baldwin and believe that Seth Kenney, as the primary ammunition supplier, mixed live cartridges with blank cartridges in the ammunition provided to Rust," Jason Bowles, an attorney for Gutierrez Reed, said in a statement to CNN.
"We have asked again that the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office and the FBI analyze the live bullets for fingerprints and DNA to confirm where they came from. To date, they have not done so and this is a vital question you must ask." be answered to discover the whole truth of what happened".
CNN has reached out to the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office for comment.
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“We disagree with Mr. Baldwin's attempts to shift the blame onto others.
It is not for him to decide or apportion the blame," Bowles added.
In a statement, Halls' attorney said Baldwin is trying to take the blame off himself.
“Baldwin is pointing fingers at others because the evidence is pointing at him,” said Lisa Torraco.
"Halls is not responsible. Everyone needs to stop. People just point fingers at Halls because they don't want to take responsibility for being wrong. Halls is a scapegoat. People need to look at the evidence."
Baldwin has repeatedly said that he cocked the gun, withdrew the firing pin, but did not pull the trigger.
A recently released FBI forensic report says the gun failed to fire during FBI tests of normal operation without pulling the trigger while the gun was cocked.
The report noted that the gun ultimately failed during FBI testing after internal parts fractured, causing the gun to fire in the cocked position without pulling the trigger.
Luke Nikas, an attorney for the actor, told CNN on Sunday that the FBI report "is being misconstrued."
"When Alec Baldwin showed up that tragic day to film, he didn't have a reason in the world to think there was a real bullet in that gun, in that church, or even on that property," Nika told CNN in a statement afterward.
interview on Thursday.
"It would be a huge miscarriage of justice [to charge Baldwin]."
'I don't want to see anyone suffer'
Over the past 10 months, Baldwin says he has replayed the events leading up to the fatal shooting in his head.
While he waited for Santa Fe County prosecutors to announce the results of their investigation of him, Baldwin says he took matters into his own hands.
"I hired a private investigator," he said.
According to what his private investigator told him, Baldwin said he doesn't think he will be criminally charged.
Baldwin said he believes Gutierrez Reed and Halls should also not be criminally charged.
"I'm pretty sure none of them should ever work on a film set again," he said.
"I sincerely believe ... [that investigators are] going to say this was an accident. It's tragic."
Baldwin added that he does not want to "condemn" Gutierrez Reed.
"I mean maybe it's the Catholic in me," Baldwin said.
“I have the urge to say, I don't want to see anyone suffer.
I don't want to sit there and say, you know, go find her and convict her."
'That she has died, that is the worst of all'
Filming for "Rust" was shut down after the shooting.
Baldwin says she went to great lengths to try to complete the filming in an effort to provide potential profits for Hutchins' husband, Matthew Hutchins, and her child.
The widower of the cinematographer is suing the film's production company, and Baldwin is one of the defendants.
“People talk about ending the movie to honor Halyna and I totally agree with that, that's great.
But more importantly, we wanted to put the money in the boy's pocket," Baldwin told CNN, referring to Hutchins' son.
Hilaria and Alec Baldwin are expecting their seventh child
Baldwin says he has lost five jobs since the "Rust" shooting and would have left the movie business were it not for the support of his wife, Hilaria Baldwin, who is expecting her seventh child this year.
"I got fired from another job yesterday," he said.
"Everything was ready to make a movie, get on a plane... I've been talking to these people for months and yesterday they told me that they don't want to make the movie with me because of this."
Baldwin also says he fears for his safety since former President Donald Trump publicly said he believed the actor killed Hutchins on purpose.
Baldwin says it's that kind of stress that "has taken years off his life."
"There's a torrent of people attacking me who don't know the facts," he said, crediting his family's support for keeping him going.
"If I didn't have my wife, I don't know where I'd be right now... If I didn't have her, I probably would have quit, retired, gone, you know, sold everything I owned, gotten a house in the middle of nothing and, you know, I would have found something else to do, sell real estate.
On whether he'll be returning to a TV or movie set, Baldwin says he won't be working with real guns anymore.
Filmmakers these days can employ digital effects to create realistic weapons on screen, she says.
The family of Halyna Hutchins demands that they remove the video in which she appears dying after being fatally injured during the filming of “Rust”, according to the lawyer
Baldwin also says that not a day goes by that he doesn't think about Hutchins and what happened.
"Everyone loved her as a person," Baldwin said, praising Hutchins' talent and character.
"Her dying, that's the worst of it. Someone died, and it was preventable. It was so unnecessary," he said.
"Every day of my life I think about that."
CNN's Brandon Griggs, Julia Jones, Josh Campbell and Kevin Flower contributed to this report.
