US gun violence memorial to include Albuquerque families - By Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press
A bow tie from homecoming, a tiny basketball and a toy car and plane.
It wasn't hard for Angel Alire to decide what would be the perfect objects to memorialize her son. He was a starting point guard for his high school basketball team, he poured his heart and much of his money into his sports car and he was close to earning his pilot's license.
Devon Trey Heyborne, 22, was killed on a Friday evening in April after opening his apartment door and being hit with gunfire. He is among the nearly 100 people killed in Albuquerque so far this year, marking yet another grim record for the city as it deals with a crime wave that has spanned several years.
Alire is among the Albuquerque mothers and other family members who will be adding to what organizers hope one day will become a permanent memorial in the nation's capital. It's difficult to talk about, but the 46-year-old mother of three said she wants to be a voice for her youngest son and for change within the criminal justice system.
"I just want to get the word out there so something can happen, so other families will never have to feel this way," she said. "But even since he passed, look at how many more there have been."
The Gun Violence Memorial Project features four houses built of 700 glass bricks to represent the average number of people lost to homicides, suicides and accidental shootings each week in the United States. Each glass brick displays a person's name. Inside, the items tell the story behind that name.
Launched in 2019 in Chicago, the gun violence memorial was inspired by the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt that debuted in the 1980s. The gun violence memorial currently is on display at a museum in Washington, D.C., as part of an exhibition that will run through September 2022.
Organizers call it "an active and living memorial," as items from around the country are continuously collected and added to the glass houses.
Volunteers with the project will be stopping in New Mexico's largest city Nov. 5-7 to collect items from families who have lost loved ones. Other collection events are planned this month in Massachusetts and New York.
In Albuquerque, the number of shootings in which people were injured has increased by nearly 16% when compared to the same period last year. Law enforcement has recorded about 250 shootings so far this year, including more than three dozen accidental shootings. Most of the victims have been men between the ages of 20 and 30.
The mayor signed an executive order last week creating a task force to focus on gun violence. He and other officials call it a public health crisis.
"Gun violence is the main factor driving up crime in our city," Police Chief Harold Medina said last week. "This task force is going to help us better understand the underlying causes so that law enforcement can stop acting as a band aid, and we can really address the challenges people are facing."
Alire, the police chief and others have been pointing to problems within the criminal justice system — namely a revolving door and lax consequences for repeat offenders.
In the case of Alire's son, the man charged in his death was supposed to be on house arrest for unrelated charges and monitored via GPS. She said she learned that monitoring was done only Monday through Friday during business hours.
Hardworking and handsome is how Alire described her son, saying he would never miss a chance to visit his grandparents and help them with chores and grocery shopping. Alire said her son also would call her "about 20 times a day," asking for advice on everything from cooking pot roast to cleaning methods.
Her mobile phone is filled with photos and videos of Devon.
"I feel let down by our system and by our state," Alire said. "Systems that are supposed to protect us aren't working."
She has a hard time sleeping now, and it was one of her late-night online browsing sessions where she learned about the memorial project. Seeing all those glass bricks made an impact.
"I just thought it was such an amazing visual for people to see the amount of lives taken every week from gun violence," she said. "I felt like there's been so much of that going on in New Mexico that I wanted to bring it here and be able to start the healing process among all of us who have lost someone."
New Mexico energizes first leg of major transmission line – Associated Press
It's been years in the making, and now officials say the first leg of a major renewable energy transmission line in New Mexico has been energized.
The New Mexico Renewable Energy Transmission Authority made the announcement Tuesday, saying the Western Spirit project is expected to be in operation by the end of the year.
The transmission line will carry wind-generated power to the grid in New Mexico and other western markets.
The project involved a novel public-private partnership between the transmission authority and Pattern Energy, which is developing a collection of wind farms in the state. New Mexico's largest electric utility, Public Service Co. of New Mexico, will acquire and operate the transmission line when it's complete.
State officials said the transmission line will be important as New Mexico aims to eliminate carbon emissions within the utility sector over the next two decades.
RETA Board Chairman Robert Busch said in a statement that the successful development of the transmission line and the state's energy policies are spurring interest from renewable energy and transmission developers. He added that the line enables new investment of over $1.5 billion in renewable generation and transmission in the state.
Despite New Mexico's potential for developing more wind and solar resources, a study commissioned by RETA last year identified a need for grid modernization and construction of 900 to 1,300 miles of new high voltage transmission lines.
Wildlife agencies to cancel Trump endangered species rules - By Matthew Brown, Associated Press
President Joe Biden's administration announced Tuesday plans to cancel two environmental rollbacks under former President Donald Trump that limited habitat protections for imperiled plants and wildlife.
The proposal to drop the two Trump-era rules by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service is part of a broad effort by the Biden administration to undo regulations that Democrats and wildlife advocates say favored industry over the environment.
The designation of lands and waters as critical for the survival of vulnerable species can limit mining, oil drilling and other development. That's made the designations a flashpoint for conflict between environmental and business interests.
Industry groups and Republicans in Congress have long viewed the Endangered Species Act as an impediment to economic development. Under Trump, they successfully lobbied to weaken the law's regulations with changes that gave added weight to economic development and other interests.
The Trump administration changes had backing from an array of industry groups that said economic impacts had not been given enough consideration in past U.S. government wildlife decisions. Those groups ranged from livestock and ranching organizations to trade associations representing oil, gas and mining interests.
Biden administration officials acknowledged in documents published to the federal register that in canceling Trump's rules, they were adopting views that federal wildlife agencies rejected just months ago.
But the Biden administration officials said a reevaluation of the Trump policies showed them to be "problematic" because they limited the government's ability to advance conservation by protecting areas where plants and animals are found.
Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Shannon Estenoz said the proposal would bring the endangered species law "into alignment with its original intent and purpose — protecting and recovering America's biological heritage for future generations."
Republicans lawmakers pushed back. Arkansas Rep. Bruce Westerman, the ranking GOP member of the House Natural Resources Committee, called Tuesday's move a "tone deaf" reversal of needed reforms to the endangered species law.
Westerman and other Republicans said they were introducing legislation to make the Trump rules permanent. That stands little chance of passing while Democrats remain in control of the House and Senate.
The rule changes under Trump were finalized during his last weeks in office, meaning they've had little time to make a significant impact. No new critical habitat designations have been affected by the rules since they went into effect in January, Fish and Wildlife spokesperson Brian Hires said.
One allows the government to deny habitat protections for endangered animals and plants in areas that could see greater economic benefits from development. Democratic lawmakers and wildlife advocates complained that would potentially open lands to more drilling and other activities.
The other rule provided a definition of "habitat" that critics charged would exclude locations species might need to use in the future as climate change upends ecosystems.
The two rules came in response to a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling involving a highly endangered Southern frog — the dusky gopher frog.
In that case, a unanimous court faulted the government over how it designated "critical habitat" for the 3 ½-inch-long frogs that survive in just a few ponds in Mississippi.
The issue arose after a timber company, Weyerhaeuser, sued when land it owned in Louisiana was designated as critical in case the frogs returned there in the future.
Trump officials described the changes as giving more deference to local governments when they want to build things like schools and hospitals.
But the rules allowed potential exemptions from habitat protections for a much broader array of developments, including at the request of private companies that lease federal lands or have permits to use them. Government-issued leases and permits can allow energy development, grazing, recreation, logging and other commercial uses of public lands.
Environmentalists who have urged Biden to reverse Trump's conservation policies said dropping the habitat rules marks a major step toward that goal.
"You really can't save endangered species without protecting the places they live or need to live," said Noah Greenwald with the Center for Biological Diversity.
Still pending, he said, are expected changes to a Trump-era a rule that reduced protections for wildlife categorized as threatened with extinction, a less urgent protection status than endangered.
Animals potentially affected by the changes include the struggling lesser prairie chicken, a grasslands bird found in five states in the south-central U.S., and the rare dunes sagebrush lizard that lives among the oil fields of western Texas and eastern New Mexico, wildlife advocates said.
More workers sue US nuclear lab over vaccine mandate - By Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press
Another group of workers is suing Los Alamos National Laboratory over its COVID-19 vaccine mandate, arguing that the requirement discriminates against employees who sought religious or medical exemptions.
The complaint was filed Friday in federal court by the Thomas More Society, a Chicago-based law firm, on behalf of eight workers. Under the lab's policy, those with religious exemptions have to use vacation time or go without pay until they are allowed to return to work, and it's up to lab management to determine when it's safe for them to return.
"This is discrimination, pure and simple," special counsel Tyler Brooks said Tuesday in a statement. "Los Alamos claims to have offered exemptions for those who have sincere religious reasons for not taking a mandatory COVID vaccine, but their one-size-fits-all so-called 'accommodation' is flagrantly illegal. Accommodation by termination has never been a lawful option."
The lab has declined to comment on any pending litigation over the mandate.
An effort by more than 100 engineers, technicians and other workers who sought to put the vaccine mandate on hold was rejected by a state district judge earlier this month, clearing the way for the lab to begin firing workers. Lab Director Thomas Mason told employees during a recent meeting that 185 workers had left over the mandate. About two dozen were granted medical exemptions, and more than 150 were granted religious exemptions.
"Nearly all employees — about 99% — have now taken the most important step to prevent the spread of COVID-19: getting vaccinated," the lab, which employs nearly 14,000 people, said Friday.
The lawsuit argued that the lab refuses to detail its criteria for determining when COVID-19 levels are low enough for employees on leave without pay to return to work.
"Defendants' approach is designed to maximize the uncertainty and anxiety of those employees ready and willing to return to their jobs in an effort to force compliance with their mandate despite recognizing that plaintiffs and others have a bona fide religious exemption to taking the vaccines," the complaint reads.
Lawyers for the workers said their clients stand to lose professional standing as well as security clearances as a result of the mandate.
The birthplace of the atomic bomb, Los Alamos is one of the nation's premier nuclear weapons facilities. It's under pressure to begin producing key components for the nation's nuclear arsenal and it conducts research on a wide range of topics from public health to energy infrastructure.
The law firm had asked Mason to revisit the vaccine policy but he declined, stating that the policy complied with state and federal laws.
Brooks noted that in Tennessee, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order against Oak Ridge National Laboratory's vaccine mandate based on similar claims.
Aside from civil rights and constitutional violations, the lawsuit argued that the lab has refused requests for medical accommodations for those workers who have fully recovered from COVID-19 and have natural immunity.
Bernalillo county inmate accused of fatally beating cellmate – Associated Press
A 25-year-old inmate in the main jail for metro Albuquerque is accused of killing another inmate who was his cellmate, officials said Tuesday.
Telea Lui was rebooked at the Metropolitan Detention Center on an open count of murder in the beating death of Leon Casiquito, 41, during a fight Monday, the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.
It didn't provide an alleged motive for the killing but said the two inmates were the only people in the cell when Casiquito were killed and that all other inmates were in their cells because of a lockdown.
Lui was originally booked into the jail on charges of aggravated battery of a household member with a deadly weapon and false imprisonment, the office said.
An attorney for the state public defender's office was representing Lui in his original case, and a spokeswoman for that office did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment on the allegations against Lui in the homicide case.
Authorities investigating inmate's death at Albuquerque jail - Associated Press
Bernalillo County Sheriff's officials said they were investigating the death of a jail inmate Monday night.
They said violent crimes detectives were called out to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Albuquerque.
Sheriff's officials didn't immediately release the name, age or gender of the deceased inmate or release any additional details about the case.
They said an update will be provided when more information is available.
Grim milestone: Over 5,000 deaths in New Mexico from virus - Associated Press
New Mexico has reached the grim milestone of having more than 5,000 deaths from COVID-19, officials said Monday.
Most of those hospitalized with the virus were unvaccinated.
Ninety three percent of the 1,039 people who died in New Mexico from the virus from February to Oct. 11 weren't vaccinated.
In all, the state has seen 271,212 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 5,002 deaths from the virus since the pandemic began.
Potential legal woes mount after 'Rust' shooting tragedy - By Stefanie Dazio, Lindsey Bahr and Anthony McCartney, Associated Press
Alec Baldwin the actor, who pulled the trigger on a prop gun while filming "Rust" in New Mexico and unwittingly killed a cinematographer and injured a director, likely won't be held criminally or civilly liable for the tragedy.
But Alec Baldwin the producer might be, along with several others in leadership positions for the Western.
Experts predict a tremendous legal fallout from the tragedy, definitely in civil lawsuits and potentially in criminal charges. In addition to Baldwin, a call sheet for the day of the shooting obtained by The Associated Press lists five producers, four executive producers, a line producer and a co-producer. They, as well as assistant director Dave Halls and armorer Hannah Gutierrez, could all face some sort of liability even if they weren't on location Thursday.
The payouts — which could be covered in part by insurance held by the production company, Rust Movie Productions — would likely be in the "millions and millions" of dollars.
"There was clearly negligence on the set," said Adam Winkler, a professor at the UCLA School of Law and a gun policy expert. "The producers had a duty to preserve the safety of the crew. There were obvious hazards on the set."
Santa Fe-based District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies told the AP on Tuesday that the investigation remains in the preliminary phase and her office was far from making any decisions about whether any charges would be filed. She added that those involved in the production were cooperating with law enforcement.
Authorities said Friday that Halls, the assistant director, had handed the weapon to Baldwin and announced "cold gun," indicating it was safe to use. But it was loaded with live rounds. Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was fatally shot and director Joel Souza, who was standing behind her, was wounded.
Baldwin, who is known for his roles in "30 Rock" and "The Hunt for Red October" and his impression of former President Donald Trump on "Saturday Night Live," has described the killing as a "tragic accident."
The production of "Rust" has been beset by disputes from the start in early October and included seven crew members walking off the set just hours before the shooting. The Los Angeles Times, citing two crew members it did not name, reported that five days before the shooting, Baldwin's stunt double accidentally fired two live rounds after being told the gun didn't have any ammunition.
Alarmed by the misfires, a crew member told a unit production manager in a text message, "We've now had 3 accidental discharges. This is super unsafe," according to a copy of the message reviewed by the newspaper.
Winkler called the previous misfires — and an apparent lack of any action taken after them — "a recipe for a very significant liability in damages."
"You can't have a dangerous situation, know about it and then do nothing," he said.
Rust Movie Productions, the production company, says it is cooperating with Santa Fe authorities in their investigation.
"Though we were not made aware of any official complaints concerning weapon or prop safety on set, we will be conducting an internal review of our procedures while production is shut down," Rust Movie Productions said in a statement to The Los Angeles Times.
Although New Mexico law defines involuntary manslaughter in part as a lawful act that resulted in death from "an unlawful manner or without due caution and circumspection," defense attorney Nina Marino said she doubts any criminal case would be filed.
"If a local agency in New Mexico was going to go forward with criminal charges, that would have a real chilling effect on further filming taking place in New Mexico and I think New Mexico appreciates the business," said Marino, who specializes in white collar cases as a co-founder of the Kaplan Marino law firm.
Any film requires insurance coverage and any policy for a Western would hit upon the use of horses, other animals and firearms. The call sheet for Thursday alone mentions multiple guns, several horses and a daily snake wrangler.
An insurer would likely cover any accidental events but the company might not pay for negligence claims on a movie set, according to Julie Shapiro, law professor and director of Loyola Law School's Entertainment and Media Law Institute.
The insurance company will do its own investigation, Shapiro said, to determine if negligence occurred. The exact wording of the policy will determine what the company would pay.
While Baldwin, the other producers, the assistant director and the armorer might be named as parties in a civil lawsuit, not all may be found to be liable — particularly if they played no role in the safety aspects of the production or only held a vanity credit. The plaintiffs would likely go after the production company's deeper pockets.
"How much? To what extent will insurance cover it? This is a loss of life — there is no dollar amount you can place," Shapiro said.
On-set fatalities have led to safety reforms in the past, but Jeff Harris — founding partner at Harris Lowry Manton LLP and the lead attorney in two high-profile trials involving accidental deaths on television and film sets, including stuntman John Bernecker on "The Walking Dead" and camera assistant Sarah Jones on "Midnight Rider" — said incidents like these are rare if the cast and crew follow regulations that are standard for the use of firearms in the film industry.
"They're not complicated," Harris said. "They've been around for years. And it struck me — you don't have this happen if basic safety policies are being followed. The end."
Stars stunned by 'mismanaged set' in fatal prop-gun shooting - By Ryan Pearson And Gillian Flaccus Associated Press
As questions linger about safety protocols on the movie set where Alec Baldwin killed a cinematographer with a prop gun he'd been told was safe, Hollywood professionals say they're baffled by the circumstances and production crews have quickly stepped up safety measures.
Jeffrey Wright, who has worked on projects including the James Bond franchise and the upcoming movie "The Batman," was acting with a weapon on the set of "Westworld" when news broke of the shooting Thursday at a New Mexico ranch. "We were all pretty shocked. And it informed what we did from that moment on," he said in an interview Sunday at the Newport Beach Film Festival.
"I don't recall ever being handed a weapon that was not cleared in front of me — meaning chamber open, barrel shown to me, light flashed inside the barrel to make sure that it's cleared," Wright said. "Clearly, that was a mismanaged set."
The shooting on the set of the film "Rust" killed 42-year-old Halyna Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza, who was standing behind her.
The gun Baldwin used was one of three that a firearms specialist, or "armorer," had set on a cart outside the building where a scene was being rehearsed, according to court records. Assistant director Dave Halls grabbed a gun off a cart and handed it to Baldwin, indicating that the weapon was safe by yelling "cold gun," court papers say. But it was loaded with live rounds, according to the records.
Baldwin, 63, who is known for his roles in "30 Rock" and "The Hunt for Red October" and his impression of former President Donald Trump on "Saturday Night Live," has described the killing as a "tragic accident."
"The Umbrella Academy" actor Justin Min, also at the Newport festival, said "it's been a very somber time" in recent days on set as he's been filming the indie thriller "Detained."
"After that — I mean we have obviously already been careful, but it's just another level of precaution," Min said.
A prop maker and licensed pyrotechnician who worked with Halls, the assistant director, on another production said she had raised safety concerns about him in the past.
Maggie Goll said in a statement that she filed an internal complaint with the executive producers of Hulu's "Into the Dark" series in 2019 over concerns about Halls' behavior on set. Goll said in a phone interview Sunday that Halls disregarded safety protocols for weapons and pyrotechnics and tried to continue filming after the supervising pyrotechnician lost consciousness on set.
Halls has not returned phone calls and email messages seeking comment. Rust Movie Productions has not answered repeated emails seeking comment.
The fatal shooting and previous experiences point to larger safety issues that need to be addressed, Goll said, adding that crew member safety and wellbeing are top issues in ongoing contract negotiations between a union that represents film and TV workers and a major producers' group.
"This situation is not about Dave Halls. ... It's in no way one person's fault," she said. "It's a bigger conversation about safety on set and what we are trying to achieve with that culture."
A vigil for Hutchins was held Sunday in Southern California, where attendees exchanged tearful hugs and speakers echoed calls for heightened safety standards.
Actor Rosanna Arquette joined many in Hollywood in calling for a move away from using real weapons, whether armed with blanks or bullets.
"I hope this wakes people up. Because there should be no live round anything ever on a movie. We have enough CGI, we have enough — it's absurd," she said. "All of us are shaken to the core in the industry about this."
Actor Ray Liotta agreed with Wright that the checks on firearms are usually extensive.
"They always — that I know of — they check it so you can see," Liotta said. "They give it to the person you're pointing the gun at, they do it to the producer, they show whoever is there that it doesn't work."
Baldwin, who is a producer on "Rust," met with Hutchins' husband and 9-year-old son Saturday at a hotel in Santa Fe where the actor had been staying during filming. Baldwin and Hutchins' husband can be seen embracing in a photo published by the New York Post.
In fatal shooting, some political foes take aim at Baldwin - By Jake Coyle AP Film Writer
Details are still emerging about how Alec Baldwin accidentally shot and killed a cinematographer on a New Mexico film set, but some political onlookers swiftly assigned guilt to one of Hollywood's most prominent liberals.
Right-wing pundits and politicians have long chafed at Baldwin's criticism of former President Donald Trump and his Trump parody on "Saturday Night Live." They wasted little time zeroing in on the actor who pulled the trigger. The hashtag #AlecForPrison ricocheted around Twitter.
Within hours of the shooting, Ohio Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance asked Twitter to let Trump back on the social media platform that banned him after the Capitol insurrection. "We need Alec Baldwin tweets," Vance wrote.
By Monday, Trump's oldest son was selling $28 T-shirts on his official website with the slogan "Guns don't kill people, Alec Baldwin kills people." The post was later removed.
Gun violence has long divided the country, but the fact that some observers seemed to revel in Baldwin's role in the shooting added a political dimension to the tragedy. CNN host Jake Tapper on Sunday called Hutchins' death "heartbreaking for normal people."
"But there's something about our politics right now that is driving people away from our shared humanity," Tapper said.
Court records provided some details about the death of Halyna Hutchins on the set of "Rust" near Santa Fe, New Mexico. Authorities have said that the assistant director, Dave Halls, handed the weapon to Baldwin and announced "cold gun," indicating that the weapon was safe to use.
In an affidavit released Sunday night, the film's director, Joel Souza, said Baldwin was rehearsing a scene in which he drew a revolver from his holster and pointed it toward the camera, which Hutchins and Souza were behind. Souza, who was wounded by the shot, said the scene did not call for the use of live rounds.
It's not clear yet where the gun-handling protocol failed. Souza said the movie's guns were usually checked by armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed and then again by Halls.
At least two people have aired doubts about Halls' safety record.
In an email statement to The Associated Press, a producer for the movie "Freedom's Path" confirmed Monday that Halls was fired from the 2019 production after a crew member suffered a minor injury "when a gun was unexpectedly discharged." The producer, who asked not to be identified by name, wrote that Halls "was removed from the set immediately." Production did not resume until Halls was gone.
Prop maker Maggie Goll on Sunday said she filed an internal complaint in 2019 over concerns about Halls' behavior on the set of Hulu's "Into the Dark" series. Goll said Halls disregarded safety protocols for weapons and pyrotechnics and tried to continue filming after the supervising pyrotechnician, who was diabetic, lost consciousness on set.
Neither Gutierrez-Reed nor Halls have responded to requests for comment on the shooting.
In the affidavit, cameraman Reid Russell said Baldwin had been careful with weapons. Russell was unsure whether the weapon was checked before it was handed to Baldwin.
In the aftermath of Hutchins' death, many in the film industry have argued that real guns should be replaced entirely by computer-generated effects.
"There should not have been a loaded gun on set," actor Riley Keough wrote on Instagram. "We don't need real guns, we can make replicas, and we have CGI. In my opinion, that is the issue here. Not Alec Baldwin."
And yet, as director Gigi Saul Guerrero observed, Baldwin has been the "face to this tragic story." The 63-year-old actor, a vocal advocate of gun-law reforms, has been widely mocked by the far-right on social media.
"Literally not one single thing that Alec Baldwin has said about Donald Trump and his supporters is going to age well," tweeted conservative commentator Candace Owens.
U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Colorado Republican, cited a tweet of Baldwin's last year supporting Black Lives Matter protesters in which Baldwin said he was going to make T-shirts that read: "My hands are up. Please don't shoot me!" Wrote Boebert: "Alec Baldwin, are these still available? Asking for a movie producer."
Boebert received widespread criticism. Actor George Takei said Boebert had "no soul." Actress Rosanna Arquette wrote: "This was a tragic and horrible accident. Ms. Boebart and you should be ashamed of yourself politicizing it." But Boebert stood by her tweet.
"You crazy Blue Checks want to take away our right to defend ourselves with a firearm, and know NOTHING about basic gun safety!" Boebert wrote. "If this was a conservative celebrity you'd be calling for his head."
The film's chief electrician, Serge Svetnoy, blamed producers for Hutchins' death in an emotional Facebook post Sunday. Svetnoy faulted "negligence and unprofessionalism" among those handling weapons on the set, and claimed producers hired an inexperienced armorer.
"I'm sure that we had the professionals in every department, but one — the department that was responsible for the weapons," Svetnoy wrote. "The person who should have checked this weapon before bringing it to the set did not do it. And the DEATH OF THE HUMAN IS THE RESULT!"
A spokesman for the film's production company, Rust Movie Productions LLC, has said it is cooperating with authorities and conducting an internal review. The company said it was halting production on the film but signaled it may resume in the future.
Baldwin has said he is cooperating with the law enforcement investigation and described the shooting as a "tragic accident."
Assistant director of Baldwin film fired after 2019 mishap - By Morgan Lee, Cedar Attanasio And Hillel Italie Associated Press
The assistant director who handed Alec Baldwin the gun that killed a cinematographer last week had been fired from a previous job after a gun went off on a set and wounded a member of the film crew, a producer said Monday.
The disclosure emerged as producers of Baldwin's movie officially halted filming, and court records showed that investigators seized more than two dozen items from the set on the day after the shooting.
In an email statement to The Associated Press, a producer for the movie "Freedom's Path" confirmed that Dave Halls was fired from the 2019 production after a crew member suffered a minor injury "when a gun was unexpectedly discharged." The producer, who asked not to be identified by name, wrote that Halls "was removed from the set immediately." Production did not resume until Halls was gone.
His firing from "Freedom's Path" was first reported by CNN. Halls has not returned phone calls and email messages seeking comment.
The producer is the second person to air doubts about Halls' safety record. On Sunday, another crew member who worked with Halls said she raised concerns about him in 2019.
Maggie Goll, a prop maker and licensed pyrotechnician, said in a statement that she filed an internal complaint with the executive producers of Hulu's "Into the Dark" series over Halls' behavior. Goll said in a phone interview that Halls disregarded safety protocols for weapons and pyrotechnics and tried to continue filming after the supervising pyrotechnician, who was diabetic, lost consciousness on set.
The fatal shooting and previous experiences point to larger safety issues, Goll said, adding that crew safety was a top issue in recent contract negotiations between a union that represents film and TV workers and a major producers' group.
"This situation is not about Dave Halls. ... It's in no way one person's fault," she said. "It's a bigger conversation about safety on set and what we are trying to achieve with that culture."
In an email sent to "Rust" crew members over the weekend, the movie's production team confirmed that work on the Western has been suspended at least until the investigation is complete. The team said it is working with law enforcement and conducting its own internal safety review. The production company is also offering grief counseling.
The email suggested that work on the film could resume at some point.
"Although our hearts are broken, and it is hard to see beyond the horizon, this is, at the moment, a pause rather than an end," the email read.
The sheriff's investigation continued Monday, and new court documents showed that authorities seized three black revolvers, ammunition boxes, a fanny pack with ammunition, several spent casings, two leather gun belts with holsters, articles of clothing and swabs of what were believed to be blood.
No charges have been filed. Prosecutors and law enforcement officers were expected to provide an update on the investigation Wednesday.
Moments before the shooting, Baldwin was explaining how he was going to draw the revolver from his holster and where his arm would be positioned, court records show.
The actor had been told that the gun was safe to use for the rehearsal of a scene in which he was supposed to pull out the weapon while sitting in a church pew and point it at the camera, the records said.
Cameraman Reid Russell told a detective that he was unsure whether the weapon was checked before it was handed to Baldwin, and he did not know why the gun was fired.
The camera was not rolling when the gun went off and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, Russell told authorities, according a search warrant affidavit released Sunday.
Authorities have said that Halls had handed the weapon to Baldwin and announced "cold gun," indicating it was safe.
When asked about how Baldwin treated firearms on the set, Russell said the actor was safe, citing a previous instance when Baldwin made sure a child actor was not near him when a gun was being discharged.
The affidavit released Sunday also included statements by director Joel Souza, who was standing behind Hutchins and was wounded.
It detailed the moments before the shooting and showed that there was turmoil on the set the day of the shooting. Several members of the camera crew walked off the production in a dispute over payment and lodging, Russell said, and he was left with a lot of work to do. Only one camera was available to shoot, and it had to be moved because the light had shifted and there was a shadow.
Souza said he was focused on how the scene would appear on camera. He said he recalled hearing the phrase "cold gun" before the shooting, the affidavit said.
He said the scene did not call for the use of live rounds. After a lunch break, Souza said he was not sure if the firearm had been checked again. Souza was looking over Hutchins' shoulder when he heard the gunshot, according to the affidavit.
The film's chief electrician, Serge Svetnoy, blamed producers for Hutchins' death in an emotional Facebook post on Sunday. Svetnoy said he had worked with Hutchins on multiple films and faulted "negligence and unprofessionalism" among those handling weapons on the set. He said producers hired an inexperienced armorer.
Baldwin, who is known for his roles in "30 Rock" and "The Hunt for Red October" and his impression of former President Donald Trump on "Saturday Night Live," has described the killing as a "tragic accident."
Navajo Nation: No COVID-19 deaths for 18th time in 26 days - Associated Press
The Navajo Nation on Monday reported 37 more COVID-19 cases, but no coronavirus-related deaths for the 18th time in the past 26 days.
The latest numbers pushed the tribe's totals to 36,161 confirmed COVID-19 cases from the virus since the pandemic began more than a year ago.
The known death toll is at 1,474.
Tribal health officials had reported 24 new cases and two deaths on Sunday.
Based on cases from Oct. 8-21, the Navajo Department of Health issued an advisory notice for 48 communities due to uncontrolled spread of COVID-19.
Tribal officials still are urging people to get vaccinated, wear masks while in public and minimize their travel.
All Navajo Nation executive branch employees had to be fully vaccinated against the virus by the end of September or submit to regular testing.
"We know how to reduce and even stop the spread of COVID-19, but it takes all of us making the right choices for ourselves and others each and every day," tribal President Jonathan Nez said in a statement Monday.
The tribe's reservation is the country's largest at 27,000 square miles and covers parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.