Alec Baldwin Says He ‘Didn’t Pull the Trigger’ Of the Gun That Killed Halyna Hutchins

Over a month after an antique revolver actor Alec Baldwin was holding in a dress rehearsal on the set of his upcoming film in New Mexico discharged unexpectedly, killing the film’s cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, and wounding its director, Joel Souza, Baldwin says he has “no idea” how it happened. In a forthcoming interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, Baldwin also says that he did not pull the trigger.

According to ABC News, Baldwin says the bullet should never have been on the set, but that he wouldn’t have fired it near others in the first place:

“I would never point a gun at anyone and pull the trigger at them, never,” Baldwin told Stephanopoulos in a first look at the upcoming interview…“Someone put a live bullet in a gun, a bullet that wasn’t even supposed to be on the property,” he added.”

Other reports have stated that the set of the film, titled Rust and also produced by Baldwin, was in turmoil, as union crew members walked off just six hours before the shooting occurred, citing poor working conditions and concerns about pay. Hutchins was reportedly working with the film’s crew to improve those conditions. In the interview, Baldwin also speaks to Hutchins’s reputation as an industry veteran of over 30 films and television series who was also an active union member:

“I think back and I think of what could I have done?” Baldwin said. “She was someone who was loved by everyone who worked with [her] and liked by everyone who worked with [her], and admired… I mean, even now I find it hard to believe that [she’s gone]. It doesn’t seem real to me.”

Baldwin says, per the ABC News report, that he “had no reason to suspect a live bullet could be in the prop gun” on the set that day, but that he “didn’t pull the trigger,” despite the fact that the gun somehow fired the rounds that killed one person and wounded another. More answers may be forthcoming, however, as the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office issued a search warrant Tuesday that says the investigation may have uncovered the source of the live round.

The full interview will air on Thursday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and streams on Hulu later that evening.