Alec Baldwin describes "Rust" shooting in emotional interview: "I let go of the hammer of the gun, and the gun goes off"
CBSN
Alec Baldwin provided new details about the moments before and after a gun discharged on the set of the film "Rust" in an emotional interview that aired Thursday night. The actor said he had no idea there was a live round in the gun, and said he didn't realize it had killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza until hours after the incident.
Baldwin told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos that in the moments before the shooting, he and Hutchins were going over camera angles for a scene involving a gun inside of the church on set, and Hutchins was instructing him to point the gun in the area of her armpit.
The actor reiterated that when he was handed the gun he was told it was cold. He said he was cocking the gun but not pulling the trigger as they rehearsed the scene.
Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.