FBI report says Rust gun couldn't have fired without trigger being pulled

Yesterday, we reported that the FBI had completed its forensic analysis of the fatal shooting that took place on the set of low-budget Western Rust last year, in which a gun in the hand of star and producer Alec Baldwin discharged, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, and wounding director Joel Souza. Baldwin has stated since the first moments of the investigation into Hutchins’ death that he never pulled the trigger on the weapon—which he says he was told was “cold,” i.e., not loaded with live ammunition, by the production’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed—and that the gun improperly fired after he released the hammer, with his finger nowhere near the trigger or trigger guard.

Now, though, ABC News has reportedly acquired a copy of the FBI report (which hadn’t been disclosed to the public yesterday afternoon), which calls Baldwin’s statement that the trigger on the gun wasn’t pulled into question. If ABC News’ accounting of the report is accurate, then testing on the gun in question, “a .45 Colt (.45 Long Colt) caliber F.lli Pietta single-action revolver,” showed that it could not fire without a trigger pull, period, if the gun’s hammer was half-cocked or quarter-cocked, and could not fire if the hammer was fully cocked “while the working internal components were intact and functional.” (We’ll note that, while it’s not clear if the FBI was working with the exact gun from the shooting in their report, or simply one of the same model, itsreport lines up with statements that more than one gun safety expert has made in response to Baldwin’s assertions about the gun discharging without a trigger pull.)

Which seems to mean that the report lays out one of two possibilities: That the gun was defective in some way that someone familiar with firearms likely would have noticed, or that the trigger was pulled at some point during the gun’s operation. None of which, of course, explains why a live bullet was in the gun in the first place, or on the film’s set at all, which remains a key element of the investigations into the case, which are still ongoing with New Mexico police.

So far, neither Baldwin, nor Gutierrez-Reed, have reportedly responded to requests for comment in regards to the details apparently revealed in the FBI report. Rust assistant director Dave Halls has previously backed up Baldwin’s statements that he never pulled the trigger on the gun.