The full interview with Hoda Kotb airs Thursday morning on NBC's "Today."
The husband of slain cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who was killed last October in an accidental shooting on the set of Alec Baldwin’s film “Rust,” is speaking out in his first TV interview.
Matthew Hutchins has some harsh words for Baldwin while speaking with Hoda Kotb on “Today.”
“Watching him, I just felt so angry to see him talk about her death so publicly, in such a detailed way and then to not accept any responsibility after having just described killing her,” Matthew said.
He says in a preview of the interview that he finds it shocking that Baldwin seems to be portraying himself as the victim.
“Hearing him blame Halyna in the interview and shift responsibility to others and seeing him cry about it, I just feel like, are we really supposed to feel bad about you, Mr. Baldwin?” Matthew said.
During his interview with George Stephanopoulos two months ago, Baldwin made the startling claim that the gun went off unexpectedly after he cocked the hammer, without ever pulling the trigger.
“The trigger wasn’t pulled. I didn’t pull the trigger,” Baldwin said.
Dutch Merrick, a veteran studio armorer, demonstrated Baldwin's account and says, it just doesn’t add up. The demonstration can be watched in the video player above.
“With a fully functioning gun, it seems very unlikely that the hammer can slip forward past the safety stops and fire,” Merrick said.
Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said in an interview with "Vanity Fair" that she tested Baldwin’s claims with the help of her investigators in an empty room. “You can pull the hammer back without actually pulling the trigger and without actually locking it. So, you pull it back partway, it doesn’t lock, and then if you let it go, the firing pin can hit the primer of the bullet,” she said.
She said the test revealed that the hammer can cause a live round to fire without the trigger being pulled.
Results of an official FBI investigation are still pending.
As for the grieving widower, in the days after his wife was shot to death, Matthew Hutchins was seen embracing Baldwin. But now he says it's time for the actor to take responsibility for what happened.
“The idea that the person holding the gun and causing it to discharge is not responsible, is absurd to me,” Hutchins said.
The full interview airs Thursday morning on NBC.
