Alec Baldwin Deflects Guilt Over Fatal Shooting On Movie Set: 'Someone Is Responsible... But I Know It's Not Me'

Alec Baldwin absolved himself of any guilt connected to his fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the New Mexico set of the film “Rust,” claiming he did not point the gun at Hutchins and did not pull the weapon’s trigger.

What Happened: A gun that Baldwin was holding during a scene set-up discharged a live round, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza. In a Thursday night interview with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News, a division of the Walt Disney Co. DIS, Baldwin was adamant about not carrying any guilt over the death of Hutchins.

“No, no,” Baldwin answered. “I feel that, that someone is responsible for what happened and I can’t say who that is, but I know it’s not me.”

Baldwin added that he was unaware a live round was included in the gun that he held during a scene set-up.

“There’s only one question to be resolved, only one,” he said. “Where did the live round come from?”

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What Else Happened: Baldwin stated he took directions from Hutchins on where to point the gun he was using for the scene that was being prepared.

“She says, ‘Go to your right. Okay, right there. Alright do that, go a little bit lower,’” he continued. “She’s getting me to position the gun. I said to her ‘Okay, now in this scene, I’m going to cock the gun.’ I said, ‘Do you want to see that?’ And she said ‘Yes.’”

Baldwin said he proceeded to cock the gun under Hutchins’ direction, adding that he let go of the gun’s hammer and the weapon discharged.

“The trigger wasn’t pulled,” he stated. “I didn’t pull the trigger.”

What Happens Next: While Thursday’s interview was the first time that Baldwin spoke publicly about the shooting, it's not the first time he sought to deflect responsibility for the incident. One week after the shooting, he used Twitter TWTR to share press coverage that assigned blame for the incident to “Rust” assistant director Dave Halls.

Baldwin shares co-producing status on “Rust,” although he seemed to distance himself from any potential civil lawsuits by downplaying his responsibility behind the camera.

“I am a purely creative producer,” Baldwin said. “My authorities as a producer are casting and script, which are actually married to the role of being a lead actor in a film. There are basically two types of producers who are really in charge of production: people that raise the money and the people who spend the money. My consultations or approvals were completely about casting and about the script. I don’t hire anybody in the crew.”

The police investigation into the shooting is still ongoing.

Photo: Courtesy ABC News

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