<div><span style="font-size: 1rem;">US actor Alec Baldwin said he does not believe anyone will be criminally charged over the fatal shooting on the set of Western film "Rust," telling CNN he has hired a private investigator to assess culpability for the tragedy.</span><br></div><div><br></div><div>Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins died after being hit by a live round that came from a gun Baldwin was holding as he rehearsed on the New Mexico set of the low-budget movie last October.</div><div><br></div><div>A criminal investigation into the shooting is still ongoing, and prosecutors have not yet ruled out charges against those involved.</div><div><br></div><div>"I sincerely believe... (investigators are) going to say that this was an accident. It's tragic," said Baldwin in a rare interview about the episode, a portion of which was aired Friday.</div><div><br></div><div>Baldwin told CNN he had replayed the events leading up to the shooting over and over for the past 10 months.</div><div><br></div><div>While insisting he does not want to "condemn" Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the film set's armorer and props assistant, Baldwin pointed the finger of blame at her and assistant director Dave Halls, who handed him the gun moments before the shooting.</div><div><br></div><div>"Someone put a live bullet in the gun who should have known better," Baldwin said.</div><div><br></div><div>"That was (Gutierrez-Reed's) job. Her job was to look at the ammunition and put in the dummy round or the blank round, and there wasn't supposed to be any live rounds on the set.</div><div><br></div><div>"There are two people who didn't do what they were supposed to do," he added.</div><div><br></div><div>"I'm not sitting there saying I want them to, you know, go to prison, or I want their lives to be hell.</div><div><br></div><div>"I don't want that, but I want everybody to know that those are the two people that are responsible for what happened."</div><div><br></div><div>- Multiple lawsuits -</div><div><br></div><div>Baldwin, who was both the star and a producer of "Rust," has been the subject of a number of civil lawsuits over the shooting, including from Hutchins's family.</div><div><br></div><div>He has previously said he was told the gun contained no live ammunition, had been instructed by Hutchins to point the gun in her direction, and did not pull the trigger.</div><div><br></div><div>But a recent FBI forensic report concluded that the gun could not have been fired "without a pull of the trigger."</div><div><br></div><div>Meanwhile, Gutierrez-Reed has sued the film's ammunition supplier, accusing him of leaving real bullets among the dummy cartridges.</div><div><br></div><div>On Thursday, her lawyer criticized the FBI for failing to carry out DNA or fingerprint testing to establish who had handled the live rounds found on set.</div><div><br></div><div>"It is inconceivable that the sheriff would not seek answers to this fundamental question and it raises a serious problem with the entire investigation," said a statement from Jason Bowles.</div><div><br></div><div>Following Baldwin's latest interview, lawyers for both Gutierrez-Reed and Halls told CNN that the actor was trying to deflect blame away from himself.</div><div><br></div><div>Baldwin also used the CNN interview to address former US President Donald Trump's public intimation that he could have killed Hutchins on purpose.</div><div><br></div><div>Trump last year told a podcast that Baldwin -- who frequently impersonated and ridiculed the president on "Saturday Night Live" -- was a "troubled guy," suggesting that "maybe he loaded" the gun.</div><div><br></div><div>Baldwin told CNN he was consequently worried that some of Trump's supporters would "come and kill me."</div><div><br></div><div>"Here was Trump, who instructed people to commit acts of violence, and he was pointing the finger at me and saying I was responsible for the death," said Baldwin.</div><div><br></div><div>"There is just this torrent of people attacking me who don't know the facts." - AFP </div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div>