2 killed, several hurt in Halloween night shooting in Orlando, mayor announces local state of emergency

(SANTA FE, N.M.) A New Mexico judge has declined to reconsider criminal charges against Alec Baldwin over the fatal shooting on the set of “Rust” in October 2021.

“Because the State’s Amended Motion raises arguments previously made, and arguments that the State elected not to raise earlier, the Court does not find the Amended Motion well taken,” the decision said.

The court dismissed the state’s application to reinstate involuntary manslaughter charges that were thrown out in July after it was learned during trial that prosecutors withheld evidence from the defense, namely ammunition brought to the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office.

Baldwin’s attorneys claimed live ammunition that came into the hands of local law enforcement related to the investigation was “concealed” from them.

The judge in the trial, Mary Marlowe Sommer, said the state’s discovery violation regarding the late disclosure of a supplemental report on the ammunition evidence “injected needless delay into the proceedings,” approached “bad faith” and was “highly prejudicial to the defendant.”

Marlowe Sommer also issued the new ruling on Friday saying the charges would not be reconsidered for Baldwin.

“State does not raise any factual or legal arguments that would justify the grant of a motion to reconsider,” she wrote in the opinion.

Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed on Oct. 21, 2021, when she was shot by Baldwin while he was practicing using a Colt .45 revolver. The prop gun, which Baldwin believed to contain dummy rounds, actually had a live round of ammunition in it. Director Joel Souza was also struck in the shooting, but recovered from his injuries.

“Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in connection with Hutchins’ death in March. Prosecutors argued during the trial she was the source of the live bullet and had failed to follow safety protocols meant to protect the crew while handling the firearms.

Gutierrez is currently serving an 18-month prison sentence, the maximum for the offense.

Last month, Marlowe Sommer denied a motion from Gutierrez’s attorneys arguing she was entitled to a new trial or dismissal of the case for “egregious prosecutorial misconduct” and “severe and ongoing discovery violations by the State,” related to the same evidence that resulted in Baldwin’s trial being dismissed. 

Marlowe Sommer also denied a separate motion from the defense seeking immediate release from detention.

The judge ruled the issues raised by the defense did not justify a new trial or dismissal, and that the state did not suppress the ammunition evidence in Gutierrez’s trial that was at the heart of Baldwin’s dismissal.

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(WINDER, Ga.) — State investigators are revealing new details surrounding the gun a 14-year-old boy allegedly used to kill two teachers and two students at his Georgia high school.

Colt Gray allegedly brought the AR-15-style rifle used in last week’s shooting — a Christmas present from his dad, according to sources — to school on his own, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Thursday. The long gun “could not be broken down,” so the teen hid it in his backpack, the GBI said.

The morning of the shooting, Gray asked his teacher for permission to go to the front office and speak with an unidentified person, the GBI said. The teacher allowed him to leave and take his belongings with him, the GBI said.

The 14-year-old then went to the bathroom and hid from teachers, and later allegedly took out the rifle and started shooting, according to the GBI.

Colt Gray is accused of killing four people and injuring nine others at Apalachee High School on Sept. 4.

Seven of the nine people who were wounded suffered gunshot wounds, the GBI clarified on Thursday.

Colt Gray is charged with four counts of felony murder. More charges will be filed, prosecutors said.

The teen’s father, Colin Gray, is charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children, the GBI said. He is accused of knowingly allowing his son to possess the weapon used in the shooting, according to the GBI.

Investigators believe Colt Gray received the AR-style gun used in the shooting as a Christmas present from his father, according to sources.

Colt Gray and Colin Gray both made their first court appearances on Friday. Neither has entered a plea and both are set to return to court on Dec. 4.

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(NEW YORK) — The NASA astronauts who flew Boeing’s Starliner to the International Space Station (ISS) and will now remain there until next year say they don’t feel let down by the mission.

Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams. who performed the first crewed test flight of Starliner, have been in space since early June. When they launched, they were only supposed to be on the ISS for about a week.

NASA and Boeing officials decided to send Starliner back to Earth earlier this month after several issues and keep Wilmore and Williams onboard until February. They will be sent home on a SpaceX Crew-9 Dragon spacecraft.

When asked if they felt let down by the way the mission turned out, Wilmore said they didn’t.

“Let down? Absolutely not,” Wilmore said during a press conference on Friday. “It’s never entered my mind. It’s a fair question I can tell you, I thought a lot about this press conference … and what I wanted to say and convey.”

He added, “NASA do a great job of making a lot of things look easy. …. That’s just the way it goes. sometimes because we are pushing the edges of the envelope in everything that we do.”

Williams said she and Wilmore are very knowledgeable about Starliner so the problems with the spacecraft were “obvious” to both of them, but she was happy to see it return to Earth.

“I was so happy it got home with no problems,” she said, “We saw it fly away, and then we all got up. The whole crew got up at three in the morning, and we had it up on our iPads, watching it land.”

Starliner landed at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico in the early hours of Sept. 7.

Despite Starliner’s issues, NASA officials said Wilmore and Williams would have been safe onboard Starliner if they returned with the spacecraft.

“If we’d have had a crew on board the spacecraft, we would have followed the same back away sequence from the space station, the same de-orbit burn and executed the same entry and so it would have been a safe, successful landing with the crew on board,” Steve Stich, program manager for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said at a post-landing press conference.

Stich told reporters last month that NASA will send Dragon to the ISS in September, with only two of the four astronauts assigned to it.

The spacecraft would carry extra spacesuits for Wilmore and Williams. However, the two would remain on the ISS until February 2025, when Crew-9 is set to return to Earth.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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