A recent FBI forensic investigation concluded that the gun fired by Alec Baldwin on the set of Rust — killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza — could not have gone off without Baldwin pulling the trigger. Despite this, Baldwin maintains his innocence and believes he will not be charged with any crime. What he is concerned about, however, is potential violence carried out against him by followers of Donald Trump.
In a new interview with CNN, Baldwin said he “feared for my life” after Trump told his supporters that the the actor “probably shot [Hutchins] on purpose.”
“Here was Trump, who instructed people to commit acts of violence, and he was pointing the finger at me and saying I was responsible for the death. 1000% percent I am nervous that a bunch of people who were instructed by the former president to go to the Capitol, who killed a law enforcement officer… you don’t think, that I think to myself, that some of those people are going to come and kill me.”
Trump insinuated that Baldwin, his longtime comedic thorn, intentionally shot Hutchins in a podcast interview in November 2021. “He’s a cuckoo-bird, he’s a nutjob. And usually, when there’s somebody like that, you know, in my opinion, he had something to do with it,” Trump said.
The New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator has classified Hutchins’ death as an accident, “based on all available information, including the absence of obvious intent to cause harm or death, the manner of death is best classified as accident.” Even so, the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office is leading a criminal investigation into the shooting and has not ruled out filing charges against the involved parties — including Baldwin. The family of Hutchins has also filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Baldwin and several producers and crew members of Rust, including the film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez Reed, and its assistant director, Dave Halls. Both Gutierrez Reed and Halls have a history of creating unsafe work environments — so much so that several Rust crew members staged a walkout just hours before the shooting took place.