Hilaria returns to the Hamptons as Alec Baldwin insists he did not fire the gun – Daily Mail

Hilaria Baldwin was spotted on Friday riding horses and going shopping in the Hamptons, just one day after her husband denied firing the gun that killed a cinematographer in his first sit-down interview since the fatal shooting.

Hilaria and Alec Baldwin have been seen in the upscale Long Island community – where the two own a home – several times since he has come under fire for shooting cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of his western film, Rust, at the end of October.

They have previously been pictured enjoying some time at a park in the Hamptons, where they would kick around a soccer ball with their six children, and enjoy a picnic.

But on Friday, Hilaria, 37, was seen in photos without her husband and kids, loading errands into the back of a black Cadillac Escalade and galloping around one of the Hamptons wide-open spaces on a horse.

She sported a metallic gray winter jacket, a sweatshirt, black UGG boots, leggings and some large sunglasses in the brisk but sunny weather on Friday. 

It was unclear whether Alec Baldwin, 63, and their children were in the Hamptons with her, but the two had been seen the day before loading luggage into their car.

Just one day before, Hilaria and Alec Baldwin were seen grabbing coffee at the Madman Espresso in the West Village, a favorite haunt for the couple, as Baldwin kept a sullen look, dressed in all black, while Hilaria wore electric metallic leggings and a golden-colored Moncler vest priced at $1,900. 

The Baldwins had also been spotted earlier in the day taking a stroll with their infants in the Manhattan streets.

After the coffee break, Baldwin carried suitcases and packed them into his SUV before going home.

It now appears the couple was packing for another weekend trip to the Hamptons, as they prepared for the fallout from Alec Baldwin’s sit-down interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, in which he seemed to insist that he did not shoot the gun that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. 

In the interview, which aired Thursday night but was pre-recorded, Alec said that he was devastated by the shooting, and frequently broke down in tears. But he insisted he bore no responsibility for Hutchins’s death, because he did not bring live ammunition on to set, and so he did not feel any guilt.

He also maintained that he did not pull the trigger on the handgun and that it just ‘went off’ while in his hands on the set of the movie in New Mexico on October 21.

‘I let go of the hammer, bang. The gun goes off. Everyone is horrified. They’re shocked. It’s loud,’ he said.

He also revealed that in the moments after the shooting, he did not realize Hutchins had been hit, saying he originally thought she had fainted or had a heart attack, and it did not occur to him until around 45 minutes later that it could have been live ammunition put in the antique prop gun for their Western film, Rust.

‘They kept saying, she’s stable – just as you disbelieve there was a live round in the gun, you disbelieve it’s going to be a fatal accident,’ Baldwin told Stephanopoulos.  

‘At the end of my interview with the sheriff’s department, they told me ‘we regret to inform you she didn’t make it,’ they told me then and there.’ 

He added: ‘That’s when I went outside and called my wife.’ 

But, he said, he has been told by police ‘in the know’ that it is ‘highly unlikely’ he’ll face criminal charges.

‘Someone is responsible for what happened, and I can’t say who it is, but it’s not me.

‘Honest to God, if I thought I was responsible I might have killed myself. And I don’t say that lightly.’   

Dave Halls, the assistant director who was watching, confirmed Baldwin’s account, through his lawyer.  

The next day, Hilaria took to Instagram to lament that Alec’s involvement in the shooting death of Hutchins meant she had  ‘lost my voice in this giant cyclone’, vowing that she would not let the tragedy affect them or their relationship.

In a gushing tribute to her husband – which critics immediately seized on as insensitive – Hilaria provided a deeply personal account of how the October 21 tragedy had affected her.

‘I lost my voice in this giant cyclone of modern day media, social and ‘news’,’ she wrote on Instagram. 

‘I stopped speaking because of fear. You always encourage me to speak, use my voice, stay true. You were right and continue to inspire me.’

She mentioned the now infamous photo of Alec Baldwin talking on the phone outside the set of Rust, apparently, as Alec said, to Hilaria.

In her post, Hilaria considered that evidence of their close bond.   

‘I am here, I love you, and I will take care of you.’ These were the only words that came to me when we learned Halyna had died,’ she wrote. 

‘I remember saying that phrase over and over again. The horrific loss, the torture to her family, and you, my husband, somehow put in this unthinkable nightmare. 

‘That moment, etched in my memory, photographers surrounding you, on the phone with me, documenting your agony. I couldn’t be near you to hug you, our connection over the phone, a visual for the world to see.

But many have continued to question Alec Baldwin’s version of events since the interview aired on Thursday. 

Bryan W. Carpenter, a weapons armorer who works for Dark Thirty Film Services, said he was skeptical that Baldwin never pulled the trigger.

‘In order to make it fire, you have to put your thumb up onto the hammer, cock the hammer all the way back, and then as the hammer is completely cocked back, then you pull the trigger and then the gun fires,’ Carpenter told Fox News. ‘So that’s very important because that gun had to have two step process to fire. It had to be cocked and the trigger pulled to fire.’

Carpenter continued: ‘Once you cock the hammer back on one of those old west guns, it doesn’t take a lot to set that trigger off.’

His comments come after Santa Fe Sheriff Adan Mendoza told the outlet that ‘guns don’t just go off. So whatever needs to happen to manipulate the firearm, [Baldwin] did that and it was in his hands.’ 

Some on social media were also skeptical of Baldwin’s claim that he didn’t pull the trigger. 

‘The only way any firearm is going to fire is if the trigger mechanism is pulled or jolted hard on older weapons. I.E. dropped, banged hard,’ tweeted one user. ‘Do you truly believe people are so stupid to believe your nonsense?’

‘Good grief his “acting” is horrendous,’ tweeted another. ‘Western style handguns either require the shooter cock the weapon first or don’t. Either way, this weapon had the trigger pulled. It wasn’t dropped.

‘@AlecBaldwin had it in his hands and killed Halyna and wounded another. Man up, already.’

Detectives are now investigating whether Seth Kenney, a 51-year-old Hollywood veteran who was supposed to provide the film with dummy rounds and blanks, may have sent recycled bullets from a previous set, according to an affidavit filed by the Sante Fe County Sheriff’s Office.

Investigators there continue to probe Hutchins’ death, and have yet to file any criminal charges. 

It was previously revealed that the bullet that killed Hutchins, may have been a homemade bullet that a New Mexico armorer supplied from a previous film where makeshift ammunition was used to train actors at a firing range.

During the interview with ABC set to air, Baldwin also spoke fondly of Hutchins, saying: ‘She was someone who was loved by everyone who worked with and liked by everyone who worked with – and admired.

‘Even now I find it hard to believe, it just doesn’t seem real to me.’

When asked if the shooting was the worst thing that ever happened to him, Baldwin replied: ‘Yes. Yes, yes.’

His wife, Hilaria, previously shared on Instagram the toll the tragedy has taken on the couple’s family. The mother-of-six revealed she’s had some ‘heart-wrenching’ conversations with her children after the accidental shooting. 

And in the weeks following the shooting, several former crew members have spoken out about what they called an unsafe environment on the set.

Two weeks ago, the script supervisor Mamie Mitchell tearfully announced that she was suing Baldwin and accused him of playing ‘Russian Roulette’ when he fired a gun without checking it first to make sure it was not loaded, and further claimed that the scene being filmed did not call for the firing of the gun.

The suit names 22 defendants associated with the film, including Baldwin, Rust producers, six production companies – El Dorado Pictures, Thomasville Pictures, Short Porch Pictures, Brittany House Pictures, 3rd Shift Media and Streamline Global – armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed, First Assistant Director David Halls and others.

Mitchell, a 40-year industry veteran, was standing close to Hutchins when the bullet fired from Baldwin’s gun killed her and then injured director Joel Souza. 

The suit claims assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress and deliberate infliction of harm. It also states that the scene being shot did not require a gun to be fired.

‘I ran out and called 911 and said, ‘Bring everybody, send everybody,”’ Mitchell said during a press conference. ‘This woman is gone at the beginning of her career. She was an extraordinary, rare, very rare woman.’ 

Serge Svetnoy, the head electrician who held Hutchins in his arms as she died has also sued Baldwin, Gutierrez-Reed and assistant director David Halls over ‘severe emotional distress’ after the fatal shooting and revealed that the scene did not call for Baldwin to fire the gun. 

Svetnoy filed the suit against the three crew members – as well as others, who remain unnamed – and claimed that their alleged negligence led to the shooting and put him in emotional turmoil.

Svetnoy alleged in the court documents that the bullet struck director Joel Souza, 48, and killed Hutchins nearly hit him, too, according to TMZ.

He also said that he was one of the first people to tend to Halyna while she was bleeding out and attempted to keep her conscious.

He told TMZ that he’s suing Baldwin because he ‘owed a duty to the Plaintiff and other crew members and actors on the ‘Rust’ set to handle the Colt Revolver provided to him by Defendant Halls with reasonable care and diligence for the safety of ‘Rust’ cast and crew.’

Lane Luper, who served as the film’s A-camera first assistant, said he quit one day before the fatal shooting because employees were being overworked, COVID-safety was not being enforced properly and gun safety was poor.

‘I think with Rust, it was the perfect storm of the armorer, the assistant director, the culture that was on set, the rushing. It was everything,’ he told Good Morning America about the events that led up to the fatal shooting.

‘It wasn’t just one individual. Everything had to fall into place for this one-in-a-trillion thing to happen.’

In his letter of resignation, Luper said there had been two accidental weapon discharges on set and one accidental sound-effects explosion that went off around the crew.

‘There have been NO explanations as to what to expect for these shots. When anyone from production is asked we are usually met with the same answers about not having enough time to complete the day if we rehearse or that ‘this is a 21 day shoot,” Luper wrote in the letter.

He added that the crew grew exhausted of long commutes from the set to their lodging, which for some more than two hours away.

‘In my 10 years as a camera assistant I’ve never worked on a show that cares so little for the safety of its crew,’ Luper said.

In a statement to Sky News, a spokesperson for the producers hit back at his claims, saying: ‘Mr. Luper’s allegations around budget and safety are patently false, which is not surprising considering his job was to be a camera operator, and he had absolutely nothing to do with it or knowledge of safety protocols or budgets.

‘As we continue to cooperate with all investigations, we are limited in what we can say,’ the spokesperson continued. ‘However, safety is always the number one priority.’