Alec Baldwin grabs a bite in the Hamptons after authorities in Santa Fe say it’s possible he fired the gun that killed Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins ‘without pulling the trigger’
- On Monday, Baldwin, who is back in the states from his first acting gig since the tragic shooting on the set of Rust, was seen in East Hampton, New York grabbing lunch
- Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said it was possible the gun that killed Hutchins went off without Baldwin pulling the trigger, as he had previously claimed in a December interview with ABC
- ‘I didn’t pull the trigger,’ he said at the time. ‘I would never point a gun at anyone and pull the trigger at them’
- The DA said she asked an investigator in the case to bring their own revolver and conducted an unofficial test with two independent inspectors who made sure the gun was empty
- ‘Then they visually showed me you can pull the hammer back without actually pulling the trigger and without actually locking it,’ she said
- As the Santa Fe Sheriff Office approaches its fourth month of investigation into the incident on the set of the low-budget Western, criminal charges have yet to be filed against Baldwin
- On Tuesday, the actor was hit with a wrongful death suit by Hutchins’ family, whose lawyer claimed Baldwin is in ‘complete denial’ of his role in her death and is ‘blaming others’ over the October 21 shooting
- The slain cinematographer’s family also claimed Baldwin, 63, is ‘not accepting any responsibility’ for her sudden death last year and noted that he ‘refused any gun safety training, number one’
Alec Baldwin was snapped Monday in East Hampton, New York grabbing a bite amid the latest developments in the October death of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
The actor, 63, donned a puffy black coat with grey pants and black shoes, and had his hair combed to the side on the weekday outing in the luxe enclave of New York.
The 30 Rock actor was seen eating lunch while seated on a bench on the winter weekday. He had a bag of food and drank a Dr. Brown’s soda on the daytime outing.
The latest: Alec Baldwin, 63, was snapped Monday in East Hampton, New York grabbing a bite amid the latest developments in the October death of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins
The Glengarry Glen Ross star was previously spotted heading out for coffee in New York City on Saturday, as a New Mexico DA revealed it was possible the actor might have fired the bullet that killed Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins without pulling the trigger.
The breakthrough revelation by Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies comes just days after Hutchins’ family sued the beleaguered actor, claiming he is in ‘complete denial’ of his role in her death and is ‘blaming others’ over the October 21 shooting.
The slain cinematographer’s family also claimed Baldwin is ‘not accepting any responsibility’ for her sudden death last year and noted that he ‘refused any gun safety training, number one.’
Carmack-Altwies told Vanity Fair that it was possible the gun that killed Hutchins went off without Baldwin pulling the trigger, as he had previously claimed in a December interview with ABC.
The actor donned a puffy black coat with grey pants and black shoes, and had his hair combed to the side on the weekday outing in the luxe enclave of New York
The veteran actor had a bag of food and drank a Dr. Brown’s soda as he stopped for lunch
The 30 Rock actor was seen eating lunch while seated on a bench on the winter weekday
‘I didn’t pull the trigger,’ Baldwin said at the time. ‘I would never point a gun at anyone and pull the trigger at them. Never.’
The DA said she asked an investigator in the case to bring their own revolver and conducted an unofficial test with two independent inspectors who made sure the gun was empty.
‘One of the investigators in my office happens to have a very old type revolver, and so he brought it, at my request, so that we could look at it and see if that was at all possible,’ Carmack-Altwies told Vanity Fair.
‘Then they visually showed me you can pull the hammer back without actually pulling the trigger and without actually locking it,’ she added. ‘So you pull it back partway, it doesn’t lock, and then if you let it go, the firing pin can hit the primer of the bullet.’
Exclusive photos by DailyMail.com show Baldwin, who is back in the United States from his first acting gig since the tragic shooting on the set of Rust, chatting with wife Hilaria, who waited inside the couple’s SUV as he made a coffee stop in New York City on Saturday.
Alec Baldwin was spotted heading out for coffee in New York City just days after he was hit with a wrongful dead lawsuit by the family of Halyna Hutchins
Baldwin, who is back in the States from his first acting gig since the tragic shooting on the set of Rust, chatted with wife Hilaria, who waited inside the couple’s SUV, as he made a coffee stop in New York City
Baldwin was in England filming the thriller 97 minutes, his first foray back into acting since the prop gun that he was holding went off on the set of now-abandoned Western Rust
The slain cinematographer’s family also claimed Baldwin is ‘not accepting any responsibility’ for her sudden death last year and noted that he ‘refused any gun safety training, number one’
In an interview with abc in December, Baldwin claimed the prop gun that killed Hutchins went off without him pulling the trigger
Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies (pictured) corroborated that Baldwin’s claims he did not pull the trigger could be true
Baldwin and Hilaria, 38, are parents to six children – daughter Carmen, eight, and sons Rafael, six; Leonardo, five; Romeo, three, and Eduardo, one; and newborn Lucia, one. Alec is also father to model Ireland Baldwin, 26.
On Tuesday, the actor purchased a historic 50-acre farm in Vermont for $1.7 million – the same day he was hit with a wrongful death suit by Hutchins’ family.
The purchase in the small mountain town of Arlington, comes after the actor spent months in the area after fleeing his home in New York City following the tragedy in New Mexico.
‘Obviously a purchase is public information,’ broker Faith Rhodes, who handled the sale, told local outlet the Bennington Banner on Thursday when asked about the deal.
‘It’s an historic farm. East Arlington Village is historic itself.’
According to Rhodes, the farmhouse is nearly 250 years old and was built in 1780 or 1783.
Baldwin’s family has deep ties to the area, with his wife Hilaria’s grandfather, David Lloyd Thomas Sr., having having resided there for most of his life until his death in March 2020, at 92.
On Tuesday, the actor purchased a historic 50-acre farm in Vermont for $1.7million – the same day he was hit with a wrongful death suit by Hutchins’ family
The home features ‘a 3,600 [square foot] main house, and a nicely renovated 1800 [square-foot] guest cottage with 2 baths’ (pictured)
As the Santa Fe Sheriff Office approaches its fourth month of investigation into the tragic accident on the set of the low-budget Western, criminal charges have yet to be filed against Baldwin.
‘Everyone was shocked. The gun was supposed to be empty,’ Baldwin said during an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos in December.
‘I was told I was handed an empty gun. She [Hutchins] goes down, I thought to myself ”Did she faint?”’
Carmack-Altwies’ office is expecting that a full forensic report to be conducted later this month will shed light on the make and type of ammunition that killed Hutchins.
The Santa Fe DA was reportedly shocked when she first heard Baldwin’s claim that he had not pulled the trigger.
‘I didn’t know too much about guns, certainly not about 1850s-era revolver. So, when I first heard that, I was like, ”Oh that’s crazy,”’ she told Vanity Fair.
Carmack-Altwies’ remarks followed Santa Fe Sheriff Adan Mendoza’s comments saying that ‘guns don’t just go off. So whatever needs to happen to manipulate the firearm, he did that, and it was in his hands.’
She said her office is investigating claims that the shooting had been the result of a carefully planned sabotage by scorned staff, but highlighted there was not evidence that had actually occurred.
‘The notion that there’s sabotage — I mean, there is not one iota of evidence at this point,’ she said.
An aerial view of the film set on Bonanza Creek Ranch where Hollywood actor Alec Baldwin fatally shot cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza
The Hutchins’ family attorney, Brian Panish said that Baldwin had ‘refused’ training for the kind of gun draw he was doing when he shot Hutchins
The revelation comes after Baldwin’s return from England, where he was filming the thriller 97 Minutes, his first foray back into acting since the prop gun that he was holding went off on the set of the now-abandoned Western Rust.
The movie follows the tale of a hijacked 767 plane that will crash in just 97 minutes when its fuel runs out. Baldwin’s role has not been revealed.
The actor took to Instagram on Tuesday as he was in Hampshire, saying that ‘it’s strange to go back to work.’
‘I said I would keep a little diary of when I was traveling and working,’ Baldwin said in the clip. ‘We had our first day today which is always tricky. I don’t work as much as I used to … you go to work and you forget what you’re supposed to do.’
He added he continues to ‘find that hard to say’ nearly four months after the tragic incident.
‘I went back to work today for the first time in three-and-a-half months,’ he said. ‘Movies are nearly always the same – everyone’s young compared to me, everyone’s young. Especially in independent films where there are good people, there are very good people.’
Baldwin commented how independent films often feature young people earlier in their careers working hard under time constraints.
The suit against Alec and Rust producers, filed on Tuesday in Los Angeles, claimed ‘reckless conduct and cost-cutting measures led to the death of Halyna Hutchins,’ noting that Hutchins ‘would be alive and well, hugging her husband and nine-year-old son’ had proper protocols been followed on set.
The suit says industry standards call for using a rubber or similar prop gun during the setup, and there was no call for a real gun.
It goes on to say that both Baldwin and assistant director David Halls, who handed him the gun, should have checked the revolver for live bullets.
The suit also names as defendants Halls, unit production manager Katherine Walters, the film’s armorer Hannah Guttierez Reed and ammunition supplier Seth Kenney.
‘Any claim that Alec was reckless is entirely false,’ Aaron Dyer, attorney for Baldwin and other producers, said in a statement Tuesday. ‘He, Halyna and the rest of the crew relied on the statement by the two professionals responsible for checking the gun that it was a ”cold gun” – meaning there is no possibility of a discharge.’
He added that ‘actors should be able to rely on armorers and prop department professionals, as well as assistant directors, rather than deciding on their own when a gun is safe to use.’
At least three other lawsuits have been filed over the shooting, but this is the first directly tied to one of the two people shot.
A 10-minute video created by the attorneys showed a 3D animated recreation of the shooting during a rehearsal in a church.
The law firm handling the case produced this video that shows an animated recreation of the shooting, complete with a Baldwin avatar
In the video, Baldwin accepts the revolver and points it at Hutchins, who is standing next to the camera in a church set
Baldwin fires, and the round strikes Hutchins, 42, in the chest (left). Moments later Hutchins collapses on the floor after being shot (right)
The animation shows that the round in the gun was not a typical ‘dummy’ bullet with a hole drilled in the middle
It shows a computer-generated avatar representing Baldwin accepting the Colt gun from Halls, pointing it in Hutchins’ direction and firing.
The animation shows that the bullet in the chamber was live and not a ‘dummy’ with a hole drilled into it. The round strikes Hutchins, who clutches her chest and collapses in the video.
The Hutchins’ family attorney, Brian Panish, said that Baldwin had ‘refused’ training for the kind of gun draw he was doing when he shot Hutchins. The lawsuit also claims that Baldwin never checked the gun himself for ammunition before using it.
They also presented a list of ‘at least 15 industry standards’ an attorney for the family said producers had ignored on set.
These included failure to use a prop gun rather than a live weapon, a lack of individuals qualified to handle weapons on set at the time of the shooting, and lack of protective equipment for crew.
Panish also produced a copy of a text message where a local camera operator made safety complaints to producers that there had been three unsafe weapons discharges on the set, calling the environment ‘super unsafe’.
The unit production manager responded ‘with callous sarcasm,’ according to the lawsuit. He said in response that it was ‘awesome’ and ‘sounds good.’
Source: Read Full Article