Alec Baldwin is back to his original claim that he didn’t trigger the gun when Halyna Houtchins, cinematographer, was inadvertently shot to death on set of “Rust” last October.
Baldwin spoke on a podcast hosted in part by Chris Cuomo (ex-CNN anchor).
“You say you never pulled the trigger, but the gun went off,” Cuomo said.
“Right,” Baldwin said.
“That will not make sense to people. If a bullet comes out of a gun, they say, ‘Well then someone fired it,’” Cuomo said.
“This did not come from me. This came from the DA’s office themselves,” Baldwin said.
Baldwin asked Cuomo to confirm that he was familiar enough with the phrase. “fanning a gun,” a shooting technique commonly seen in Old Western movies, that Baldwin claims can result in a gun firing without pulling a trigger.
Baldwin reiterated his claim that he was informed the gun was safe on day of shooting
“There’s only one question to ask here — who put a live round in the gun? That’s it,” Baldwin said.
In a report, the FBI stated that it had tested the gun and found no fire. “without a pull of the trigger,” contradicting Baldwin’s account, which he first told George Stephanopoulos nine months ago.
“The process of fanning a revolver involves pressing the trigger or applying pressure to the trigger, and while maintaining that pressure, pulling the hammer back and releasing it. Every time we do that, you’ll see the cylinder rotates and the hammer falls,” firearms expert Steve Wolf told Inside Edition. “It’s certainly possible that [Baldwin] wasn’t aware that he was pressing the trigger, because it’s not a large, deliberate action.”
Baldwin’s lawyer says, “The FBI report is being misconstrued.”
The criminal investigation by the Albuquerque District Attorney into the shooting is ongoing.
“I’m waiting and waiting and waiting, and then the announcement’s going to come about who is and isn’t going to be charged. The process is slow. I am deeply, deeply, deeply resentful and bitter about how slow the process has been,” Baldwin said.
Baldwin has denied wrongdoing in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the cinematographer’s family, along with two other lawsuits filed by crew members.