Right away, Baldwin made the biggest mistake you can make in a criminal investigation: he talked to the police. … The only thing I would have said in that interrogation room was, Lawyer.
To compound that error, Baldwin talked to the media!
Who was advising this guy, Daffy Duck?
You’ve just shot and killed someone, and you’re talking extemporaneously to the media? You sit down for two hours — two hours — with George Stephanopoulos? You sit down with CNN? …
Maybe he’d still be in this fix if he had kept his mouth shut. But when you have a wife and kids to provide and care for, that’s not the kind of “maybe” you fool around with.
[It is impossible to overstate how stupid that decision was. My late carry instructor Joel Rosenberg (may he rest in peace) hammered that home in his training: LAWYER UP AFTER A SHOOTING. Even if the shooting was justified or completely accidental in this case, you’re too traumatized to protect your interests in the aftermath. You will forget important details that will later return. You will recall events out of sequence. You will get stuck with a statement that police can and will shred as inaccurate and play right into the hands of a prosecutor.
When you have the kind of resources that Baldwin has, you hire a good lawyer and let him/her do all the talking from that point forward. — Ed]
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