Recent FBI forensic reports suggest that the revolver Alec Baldwin wielded in the fatal shooting of filmmaker Halina Hutchins on the set of the movie “Rust” would not have gone off without pulling the trigger while the gun was cocked. In October 2021, Baldwin held a prop gun that fired and killed Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza. It is unclear why there was a bullet in the gun. Two months later, Baldwin told ABC News that although he cocked the gun, “The trigger was not pulled. I didn’t pull the trigger.” The actor and producer said he felt “that someone is responsible for what happened and I can’t say who it is, but I know it’s not me.” “I would never point a gun at anybody and then pull the trigger, ever,” he said, adding, “Someone put a bullet in the gun, a bullet that shouldn’t even have been on the property.” The .45-caliber Long Colt F.lli Pietta single-action revolver carried by Baldwin in the New Mexico set features quarter- and half-bolt safeties, “intended to prevent the hammer from slipping when cocking and releasing the hammer with a normal trigger pull,” according to the FBI report. When tested in these two positions, the weapon “could not be fired without a pull of the trigger. When enough pressure was applied to the trigger, each of these safety positions was overcome and the hammer dropped.” When tested in the fully cocked position, the revolver “could not be fired without pulling the trigger while the functional internals were intact and functional.” The report notes that during the test, “portions of the trigger and cylinder detent broke while the hammer was struck” which resulted in “the only successful discharge during this test and was attributed to the fracture of internal components rather than failure of the firearm or safety mechanisms’. The report noted that “when a random discharge test is conducted, it may not be possible to recreate or duplicate all of the circumstances that led to the discharge of a firearm without the pull of a trigger.” Luke Nikas, Baldwin’s attorney, said in a statement that the report is “misconstrued.” “The gun only fired once in the test – 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 previous tests, even when it pulled the trigger, because it was in such poor condition.” The released documents also included a toxicology report on Hutchins, which was negative, and an autopsy signed by New Mexico Chief Medical Examiner Heather Jarrell, which listed the filmmaker’s cause of death as a “gunshot wound to the chest.” and the way “random.” “The crucial report is that of the medical examiner, who concluded 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.” In April, Rust Movie Productions was fined nearly $137,000, the maximum allowed under New Mexico law, after a report by the New Mexico Department of Environment’s Office of Occupational Safety and Health found that the film’s crew violated safety rules and “demonstrated clear disregard for employee safety.” “Our investigation found that this tragic incident would never have happened if Rust Movie Productions, LLC had followed the film industry’s national standards for firearms safety,” said James Kenney, secretary of the New Mexico Office of the Environment , on CNN at the time. “This is a complete failure by the employer to follow recognized national protocols that keep workers safe.” The FBI declined to comment on the reports. The documents do not say why there was a live round in the revolver. The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office investigation into the matter remains ongoing.
