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Halyna Hutchins' Husband Says He's 'So Angry' At Alec Baldwin For Failing To Take Responsibility For Shooting
“The idea that the person holding the gun and causing it to discharge is not responsible is absurd to me,” Matt Hutchins said of the Oct. 21 shooting on the set of "Rust" that took his wife's life.
Halyna Hutchins’ husband has said he is “so angry” at Alec Baldwin for denying responsibility for the on-set shooting that killed the cinematographer in October.
Matt Hutchins spoke out about the tragedy in a new interview on NBC’s “Today” show Thursday, describing the anguish of having to tell the couple’s 9-year-old son Andros his mother was gone and sharing who he believes is responsible for the deadly shooting.
Halyna was killed Oct. 21 on the set of the western “Rust” when a gun Baldwin was holding discharged during a rehearsal, according to search warrants previously obtained by Oxygen.com. The bullet struck her in the chest and then lodged into the shoulder of director Joel Souza. While Souza survived, Halyna died at a New Mexico hospital.
Investigators are still trying to determine how a live round got into the antique revolver.
While Baldwin has publicly denied responsibility for the tragedy, Matt—who has sued Baldwin and other producers and crew members connected to the film—said he believes it’s “absurd” to think the actor isn’t to blame.
“The idea that the person holding the gun and causing it to discharge is not responsible is absurd to me,” he told “Today” co-host Hoda Kotb. “Every individual who touches the firearm has a responsibility for gun safety. But, gun safety was not the only problem on that set. There were a number of industry standards that were not practiced and there’s multiple responsible parties.”
Matt also took issue with Baldwin’s tearful December interview, where he publicly denied being responsible for the tragedy and said he had only pointed the weapon where Halyna had instructed him to during the rehearsal before it went off.
"Someone put a live bullet in a gun, a bullet that wasn't even supposed to be on the property," Baldwin told ABC News at the time. "Someone is responsible for what happened, and I can't say who that is, but I know it's not me."
Matt was outraged by the comments, saying it “almost sounds like (Baldwin) was the victim.”
“Watching him, I just felt so angry, so angry to see him talk about her death so publicly, in such a detailed way, and then not accept any responsibility after having just described killing her,” he said.
In a statement to Oxygen.com after the lawsuit was filed earlier this month, Baldwin’s attorney Aaron Dyer said that “any claim that Alec was reckless is entirely false.”
In the interview on “Today,” Matt described the moment he met his wife of 16 years as “pretty magical” and said he traveled 2,000 miles to propose to her in Ukraine just three months after they met. Together, they carved out a beautiful life together in California and Halyna found success as a cinematographer.
He described the moment he learned from a crew member that she had been shot as “completely inexplicable” to him.
“My heart sank right away,” he said.
A short time later, he learned that she had died and rushed to pick up the couple’s 9-year-old son from school before boarding a plane to New Mexico.
“I knew that I had to tell my son right away when I saw him. I just had to be very direct and blunt because going to pick him up and going to the airport to Santa Fe, I didn’t want him to think we were going to be seeing her and having fun together and getting his hopes up.” he said. “I told him, sitting together, that mother had been shot and died and of course he didn’t believe it right away, didn’t want to believe it.”
Matt now says the family is “pursuing justice every way we can” and hopes to hold those responsible for his wife’s death accountable.
“In the end, you know, justice won’t bring Halyna back, but maybe the memory of her can help keep people safe and prevent something like this from ever happening again,” he said.
