The medical examiner’s report, which was completed after an autopsy and review of police reports, was released Monday by the Santé Fe County Sheriff’s Office. Prosecutors have not yet determined whether to file charges in the case as they review the latest reports, including from the FBI about the revolver and ammunition collected after the shooting. They are also awaiting cellphone data from Baldwin’s legal team. The medical examiner’s decision led Baldwin’s attorneys to argue that their client should not face charges related to the “tragic accident” that killed Halyna Hutchins on Oct. 21. The film’s director, Joel Souza, was injured in the shooting. Halyna Hutchins’ death was ruled an accident, as Baldwin had no intent to cause harm. Instagram/Halyna Hutchins “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,” attorney Luke Nikas said in a statement. The state medical examiner’s office explained that the shooting was accidental because there was “absence of obvious intent to cause harm or death” and “there was no compelling evidence” that the gun was intentionally filled with live bubbles on set. Baldwin told ABC News in December that he turned the gun on Hutchins after she instructed him on the set of the western that Baldwin produced. He said the gun fired after he cocked it, but denied pulling the trigger. Alec Baldwin blamed the producers’ “negligence and unprofessionalism” for her death. Serge Svetnoy/Facebook “The trigger was not pulled,” he said. “I didn’t pull the trigger.” But an FBI analysis of the revolver Baldwin was carrying showed that the gun went off and would not have gone off if he had not been fully cocked and pulled the trigger. Nikas, Baldwin’s attorney, told Fox News “the FBI report is misrepresented.” “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,” he 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.” Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for “Rust” gunman Hannah Gutierrez Reed told Fox News, “The new FBI report shows that the revolver was in good condition and that Baldwin should have pulled the trigger to fire the revolver, coming to in direct contradiction to his earlier statements and those of Assistant Director Halls, through his attorney, who also said that Baldwin did not pull the trigger.” Aerial view of the set of the movie “Rust” where the fatal shooting took place. Baldwin has also said in the past that the gun should not have been loaded during a rehearsal. Ammunition seized from the film location was cartridges found in a cart and in the case of the building where the shootings took place. Empty and dummy cartridges were also found. The New Mexico Office of Occupational Safety and Health had a long list of safety failures on the set, including testimony that production managers took little to no action to correct two failures on set before the fatal shooting. With Post cables
