A lawyer for the actor told CNN on Sunday that the FBI report is “misrepresented.” “The gun only test fired once — without having to pull the trigger — when the hammer was pulled back and the gun broke in two different places,” attorney Luke Nikas said in an email to CNN. “The FBI was unable to fire the gun in any previous tests, even when it pulled the trigger, because it was in such poor condition.” “The crucial report is that of the medical examiner, who came to the conclusion that it was a tragic accident,” Nikas said. “This is the third time New Mexico authorities have found that Alec Baldwin had no authority or knowledge of the allegedly dangerous conditions on set, that he was told by security on set that the gun was ‘cold.’ and believed the gun was safe,” Nikas told CNN. In the postmortem summary of Hutchins’ death, which was officially signed off by New Mexico’s chief medical examiner, the cause of death is listed as “gunshot wound to the chest” and the manner of death is listed as “accident. “ “A review of the available law enforcement reports did not show compelling evidence that the firearm was intentionally loaded with live ammunition at the set. Based on all available information, including the absence of an apparent intent to cause harm or death, the manner of death is best classified as accidental “, the report concludes. Baldwin, in the ABC News interview, also described cocking the gun as he spoke on stage with Hutchins. “So then I said to her, ‘Now in this scene, I’m going to go to the gun.’ And I said, “Do you want to see it?” And she said, “Yes.” So I take the gun and start raising the gun. I’m not going to pull the trigger.”
Cocking a revolver pistol like the one used on the movie set involves pulling the gun’s hammer back to prepare the gun to fire. When the gun’s hammer is released forward with enough force — such as when the trigger is pulled — it strikes the primer of a round of ammunition, causing the gun to fire. The FBI’s forensic report was turned over to the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office as part of the ongoing investigation into the fatal shooting on set. The report found that the weapon, a single-action .45 Colt (.45 Long Colt) F.lli Pietta revolver, “could not be fired without pulling the trigger” with the hammer cocked in the ¼ and ½ positions. He also found that when the weapon was fully cocked, it “could not be fired without the trigger being pulled while the functional internals were intact and functional.”
FBI investigators noted an internal malfunction of the weapon during testing in the fully cocked position, with the report noting “portions of the trigger break and cylinder detent broke while the hammer was cocked.”
The FBI report noted the limitations of forensic testing, saying it “may not be possible to recreate or reproduce all of the circumstances that led to the discharge of a firearm without the pull of a trigger.”
An attorney representing Hannah Gutierrez Reed, who served as a gunman and prop assistant in the film, said the forensic report said “Baldwin should have pulled the trigger to fire the revolver” and that the 24-year-old was used as a “passenger goat.” Part of the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s investigation is focused on how a live ammunition round may have reached the movie set. In April, Rust Movie Productions, LLC was fined nearly $137,000 and was cited as having a culture of “simply disregarding worker safety” on set, according to a report from the New Mexico Department of Environment’s Office of Occupational Safety & Health. CNN’s Chloe Melas contributed to this report.