FEB 2023. Blues Vol 39 No. 2

AROUND THE COUNTRY ment

AROUND THE COUNTRY ment for 26 years, died in the crash near Carson Street and Vermont Avenue, just outside of Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Sheriff Robert Luna said. Lim had been assigned to the sheriff’s Special Victims Bureau, which investigates cases of sexual assault and abuse, the sheriff said. In a statement, Luna said Lim leaves behind his wife and five children, as well as his parents and sister. The Sheriff’s Department said Lim suffered some kind of medical emergency as he was driving near the hospital. The crash was in West Carson, an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County adjacent to Torrance and Carson. The cause of death was unclear. The crash was reported around 10 p.m. Sunday. Lim’s vehicle was the only one involved in the crash. The Sheriff’s Department hasn’t said whether Lim was driving an agency vehicle. Lim was headed eastbound on Carson Street when he crashed, officials said. Paramedics responded and took him to the hospital, where he later died. ALEC BALDWIN TO BE CHARGED WITH MANSLAUGH- TER IN FATAL ‘RUST’ FILM SHOOTING By Morgan Lee Associated Press SANTA FE, N.M. — Actor Alec Baldwin and a weapons specialist will be charged with involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on a New Mexico movie set, prosecutors announced Thursday, citing a “criminal disregard for safety.” Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies issued a statement announcing the charges against Baldwin and Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who supervised weapons on the set of the Western “Rust.” Halyna Hutchins died shortly after being wounded during rehearsals at a ranch on the outskirts of Santa Fe on Oct. 21, 2021. Baldwin was pointing a pistol at Hutchins when the gun went off, killing her and wounding the director, Joel Souza. Assistant director David Halls, who handed Baldwin the gun, has signed an agreement to plead guilty to negligent use of a deadly weapon, the district attorney’s office said. Involuntary manslaughter can involve a killing that happens while a defendant is doing something that is lawful but dangerous and is acting negligently or without caution. The charge is a fourth-degree felony, punishable by up to 18 months in jail and a ,000 fine under New Mexico law. The charges also include a provision that could result in a mandatory five years in prison because the offense was committed with a gun. Carmack-Altwies said charges will be filed by the end of January, and that Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed will be issued yrs. a summons to appear in court. She said prosecutors will forgo a grand jury and rely on a judge to determine if there is probable cause to move toward trial. Rust Movie Productions continues to challenge the basis of a 7,000 fine by regulators who say production managers on the set failed to follow standard industry protocols for gun safety. The armorer who oversaw firearms on the set, Gutierrez-Reed, has been the subject of much of the scrutiny in the case, along with an independent ammunition supplier. An attorney for Gutierrez-Reed has said she did not put a live round in the gun that killed Hutchins, and she believes she was the victim of sabotage. Authorities said they found no evidence of that. Investigators initially found 500 rounds of ammunition at the movie set on the outskirts of Santa Fe — a mix of blanks, dummy rounds and what appeared to be live rounds. Industry experts have said live rounds should never be on set. ATLANTA POLICE ARREST 6 IN NIGHT OF CHAOS AFTER VIOLENT PROTESTERS LIT COP CAR ABLAZE, SMASHED WIN- DOWS The fiery chaos comes after an activist, Manuel Esteban Paez Teran, 26, was killed by police Atlanta police arrested at least six people after a peaceful protest Saturday erupted into a night of chaos and violence that included protesters smashing windows and setting a police vehicle on fire, the mayor said. “Atlanta is safe and our police officers have resolved the disruptions downtown from earlier in the evening,” City of Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said Saturday evening. “The City of Atlanta and the Atlanta Police Department will continue to protect the right to peaceful protest. We will not tolerate violence or property destruction,” the mayor added. Rioters in Atlanta also set off fireworks and threw rocks at the Atlanta Police Foundation Saturday evening, according FOX 5 Atlanta. The protests began peacefully on Saturday before spiraling into chaotic riots, according to FOX 5. Over the span of several hours, destruction ensued through several blocks of the downtown area. Protesters were angry about the death of 26-year-old Manuel Esteban Paez Teran, who was killed by police after he allegedly refused demands from authorities on Wednesday and fired a gun at state troopers at the site of the new Atlanta Public Safety Training Center. The activist reportedly identified as a non-binary person who went by the name Tortuguita (“little turtle” in Spanish) and used they/it pronouns. Protesters carried signs with Tortuguita’s name on Saturday. “An individual, without warning, shot a Georgia State Patrol trooper,” Georgia Bureau of Investigations’ Michael Register told reporters earlier this week. The Georgia State Patrol trooper, who was wearing a bulletproof vest, was shot in the abdomen. The law enforcement officer is in stable condition and is recovering from surgery. “Other law enforcement personnel returned fire in self-defense and evacuated the trooper to a safe area. The individual who fired upon law enforcement and shot the trooper was killed in the exchange of gunfire.” On Saturday, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp spoke out against the riots, saying violence of any kind will not be tolerated. “While the state continues to respect peaceful protest, acts of violence against person or property will not be tolerated. Those committing such unlawful acts will be arrested and prosecuted fully,” Kemp said. “Atlanta Police officers have responded to a group damaging property at several locations along Peachtree [Street],” the Atlanta PD said in a statement Saturday, according to Fox 5. Several arrests have been made at this time and order has been restored to the downtown space. This is still an active and ongoing investigation, and we will not be able to provide specifics on arrests numbers or property damaged, at this time.” Activists had been camped out on an 85-acre planned facility known as “Cop City” in recent days to protest the planned training center. When Teran was shot and killed after authorities tried to remove the protesters from the plot of land on Wednesday, they vowed to continue their protests. A total of seven people were arrested and charged with domestic terrorism on Wednesday. The Twitter account Scenes from the Atlanta Forest called for a “Night of Rage” to enact “reciprocal violence to be done to the police and their allies,” according to a post. “Consider this a call for reciprocal violence to be done to the police and their allies. On Friday, January 20th, wherever you are, you are invited to participate in a night of rage in order to honor the memory of our fallen comrade,” the group wrote on Twitter, in an apparent violation of the platform’s terms and conditions. Defend the Atlanta Forest held a vigil Wednesday evening at the Little Five Points Square to “memorialize the forest defender” that was “murdered by the police,” it announced on Twitter. “No one can bring our friend back to us. An innocent life has been taken and the machines continue,” the group said. “We will not go quietly into this dark night,” it added. OFFICER SHORTAGE HAS LAPD ASKING RETIREES TO COME BACK Faced with a flood of departures and a trickle of recruits entering its training academy that have led to dwindling staffing levels, LAPD officials have drawn up plans that call for as many as 200 retired police officers to be rehired. Known informally as the “bounce program,” it allows the chief of police to bring retired officers back for up to a year. It typically has been used sparingly in the past to recall an individual officer whose specialized skill sets make them hard to replace, 50 The BLUES The BLUES 51