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Mauricio Ramirez, 32, faces felony counts of criminal sexual assault and aggravated criminal sexual abuse.

A former Chicago Park District lifeguard supervisor has been charged with sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl who was his employee.

Mauricio Ramirez, 32, faces felony counts of criminal sexual assault and aggravated criminal sexual abuse, Chicago police said Thursday.

Ramirez was arrested Wednesday afternoon in the West Lawn neighborhood, where he lives, police said. He was expected to appear in court later Thursday.

Ramirez had been placed on unpaid emergency suspension by the park district on Sept. 13 “pending the outcome of an (inspector general) investigation,” according to personnel records obtained by the Sun-Times.

“You are further prohibited from having contact with other park district employees and visiting park district facilities,” he was told.

Ramirez resigned on Oct. 4, saying he was “pursuing other career opportunities.”

The resignation was a major development in the ongoing investigation of sexual harassment and abuse among Chicago Park District lifeguards that raised questions about an alleged cover-up in then-Supt. Mike Kelly’s administration.

Kelly resigned days later when Mayor Lori Lightfoot called on the park district’s board of commissioners to fire him over his handling of the allegations.

The Sun-Times reported in August that an Oak Street Beach lifeguard sent 11 pages of explosive allegations in February 2020 to Kelly about lifeguards’ conduct during the summer of 2019.

Contributing: Lauren FitzPatrick and Fran Spielman

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This aerial photo shows a film set at the Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico on Saturday, Oct. 23, 2021. | AP

A week after the Oct. 21 shooting, accounts and images released in court documents, interviews and social media postings have portrayed much of what happened during the tragedy.

SANTA FE, N.M. — Light from a high afternoon sun slanted through the tall windows of the weathered wooden church, catching on the plank floorboards and illuminating the stained glass. Outside, the arid ground of the northern New Mexico foothills stretched for miles — a picturesque setting for an Old West gun battle.

The actor Alec Baldwin, haggard in a white beard and period garb as he played a wounded character named Harlan Rust, sat in a pew, working out how he would draw a long-barreled Colt .45 revolver across his body and aim it toward the movie camera.

A crew readied the shot after adjusting the camera angle to account for the shadows. The camera wasn’t rolling yet, but director Joel Souza peered over the shoulder of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins to see what it saw.

Souza heard what sounded like a whip followed by a loud pop, he would later tell investigators.

Suddenly Hutchins was complaining about her stomach, grabbing her midsection and stumbling backward, saying she couldn’t feel her legs. Souza saw that she was bloodied, and that he was bleeding too: The lead from Baldwin’s gun had pierced Hutchins and embedded in his shoulder.

A medic began trying to save Hutchins as people streamed out of the building and called 911. Lighting specialist Serge Svetnoy said he held her as she was dying, her blood on his hands. Responders flew Hutchins in a helicopter to a hospital, to no avail.

A week after the Oct. 21 shooting on the set of the movie “Rust,” accounts and images released in court documents, interviews and social media postings have portrayed much of what happened during the tragedy, but they have yet to answer the key question: how live ammunition wound up in a real gun being used as a movie prop, despite precautions that should have prevented it.

During a news conference Wednesday, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said there was “some complacency” in how weapons were handled on the set. Investigators found 500 rounds of ammunition — a mix of blanks, dummy rounds and what appeared to be live rounds, even though the set’s firearms specialist, armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed, said there should never have been real ammo present.

“Obviously I think the industry has had a record recently of being safe,” Mendoza said. “I think there was some complacency on this set, and I think there are some safety issues that need to be addressed by the industry and possibly by the state of New Mexico.”

Mike Tristano, a veteran movie weapons specialist, called it “appalling” that live rounds were mixed in with blanks and dummy rounds.

“In over 600 films and TV shows that I’ve done, we’ve never had a live round on set,” Tristano said.

The shooting occurred on Bonanza Creek Ranch, a sprawling property that bills itself as “where the Old West comes alive.” More than 130 movies have been filmed there, dating back to Jimmy Stewart’s “The Man from Laramie” in 1955. Other features have included “3:10 to Yuma,” “Cowboys and Aliens” and the miniseries “Lonesome Dove.” The Tom Hanks Western “News of the World” and “The Comeback Trail” starring Robert De Niro, Tommy Lee Jones and Morgan Freeman were filmed there in recent years.

AP
More than 130 movies have been filmed at the Bonanza Creek Ranch, dating back to Jimmy Stewart’s “The Man from Laramie” in 1955.

Workplace disputes beset the production of “Rust” from its start in early October. In the hours before the shooting, several camera crew members walked off the set amid discord over working conditions, including safety procedures. A new crew was hired that morning, but filming was slow because they were down to one camera, Souza told detectives.

At 24, Gutierrez Reed had little experience working as an armorer. She told detectives that on the morning of the shooting, she checked the dummy bullets — bullets that appear real, save for a small hole in the side of the casing that identifies them as inoperable — to ensure none were “hot,” according to a search warrant affidavit made public Wednesday.

When the crew broke for lunch, the guns used for filming were locked in a safe inside a large white truck where props were kept, Gutierrez Reed said. The ammunition, however, was left unsecured on a cart. There was additional ammo inside the prop truck.

AP
Attendees embrace at a candlelight vigil for the late cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, pictured in photographs in the background, on Sunday, Oct. 24, 2021, in Burbank, California.

After lunch, the film’s prop master, Sarah Zachry, removed the guns from the safe and handed them to Gutierrez Reed, Gutierrez Reed told investigators.

According to a search warrant affidavit released last Friday, Gutierrez Reed set three guns on a cart outside the church, and assistant director Dave Halls took one from the cart and handed it to Baldwin. The document released Wednesday said the armorer sometimes handed the gun to Baldwin, and sometimes to Halls.

Gutierrez Reed declined to comment when contacted by The Associated Press on Wednesday. She wrote in a text message Monday that she was trying to find a lawyer.

However Halls obtained the weapon before giving it to Baldwin, he failed to fully check it. Normally, he told detectives, he would examine the barrel for obstructions and have Gutierrez Reed open the hatch and spin the drum where the bullets go, confirming none of the rounds is live.

This time, he reported, he could only remember seeing three of the rounds, and he didn’t remember if the armorer had spun the drum.

Nevertheless, he yelled out “cold gun” to indicate it was safe to use.

“He advised he should have checked all of them, but didn’t,” a Santa Fe County sheriff’s detective wrote in the affidavit released Wednesday.

It’s unclear whether Baldwin deliberately pulled the trigger or if the gun went off inadvertently.

In the commotion after the shooting, Halls found the weapon — a black revolver manufactured by an Italian company that specializes in 19th century reproductions — on a church pew.

He brought it to Gutierrez Reed and told her to open it so he could see what was inside. There were at least four dummy bullet casings, with the small hole in the side, he told detectives.

There was one empty casing. It had no hole.

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Ten people were shot, 2 fatally, October 27, 2021 in Chicago. | Sun-Times file photo

A man was found fatally shot in the 1500 block of East 70th Street police said

Two people were killed and eight others were wounded in shootings across Chicago Wednesday.

A man was found fatally shot early Wednesday in Grand Crossing on the South Side.

Officers were responding to a ShotSpotter alert in the 1500 block of East 70th Street about 1:35 a.m. and found the 32-year-old man with gunshot wounds to the head and body, Chicago police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Wednesday afternoon, a man was killed and two others were wounded in a shooting in Humboldt Park on the West Side.

They were on the sidewalk in the 700 block of North Trumbull Avenue when someone opened fire about 1:25 p.m., police said.

A 24-year-old man suffered gunshot wounds to his arm and side. He was pronounced dead at Norwegian American Hospital, police said.

Another man, 27, was shot in the torso and back, police said. The third man, 23, was struck in the chest. Both were taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition.

In nonfatal attacks, two men were hurt in a drive-by shooting in Lawndale on the West Side.

They were on the street about 6:30 p.m. in the 1600 block of South Homan Avenue when a light-colored vehicle pulled up and someone from inside opened fire, police said.

One man, 35, was shot in both legs and was transported to Mount Sinai Hospital in serious condition, police said. The other, 46, was struck in the foot and was taken to the same hospital in good condition.

An hour later, another man was hurt in a drive-by shooting also in Lawndale.

The man, 26, was on the street about 7:30 p.m. in the 1300 block of South Avers Avenue when someone inside a light-colored vehicle drove by and fired shots, police said. He was struck in the leg and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was stabilized.

At least four others were wounded in citywide gun violence Wednesday.

Eight people were shot, one fatally, Tuesday in Chicago.

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Tonight, the Chicago Bulls are going to face the New York Knicks. Chicago is off to a very good 4-0 start which is one of the best starts they have ever had. They are looking to build on that so that they can be considered one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference. There […] Chicago Bulls: Honoring Joakim Noah is well-deserved – Da Windy City – Da Windy City – A Chicago Sports Site – Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Fighting Illini & MoreRead More

New London transplant Ellie (Thomasin McKenzie) can see what others don’t in “Last Night in Soho.” | Focus Features

In one of the year’s most exciting movies, Thomasin McKenzie stars as a time-hopping design student who melds with a mysterious singer (Anya Taylor-Joy).

Didn’t see that coming.

Or that. Or THAT.

Edgar Wright’s piercingly effective, bloody strange, time-tripping “Last Night in Soho” is a hallucinogenic and wonderfully disturbing love letter to the fashions and sights and sounds of the London of the swinging 1960s; period-piece pop songs by the likes of Dusty Springfield, the Kinks and Petula Clark, and any number of creepy, psychological horror films. It’s a crazy kaleidoscope of bright colors, dark corners, David Lynch-style set pieces and shock moments designed to keep you up at night — and it features a quintet of memorable performances from two of the best young actors around and three iconic Brits.

“Last Night in Soho” announces itself as a singularly memorable visual work in a striking opening sequence in which Thomasin McKenzie’s Ellie glides down a hallway and into her bedroom to the strains of Peter and Gordon’s “A World Without Love.” Ellie lives with her grandmother Peggy (Rita Tushingham) in a quaint country home in Cornwall, as her mother committed suicide more than a decade earlier — but Mum remains a presence in Ellie’s life, often appearing in hyper-realistic visions via the mirror in her bedroom, which is decorated like a shrine to the 1960s.

Ellie is a talented and smart and lovely young woman, but she has dealt with serious mental health issues for most of her life, and when she moves to London to study fashion design, she is almost immediately overwhelmed by the sheer intensity of everyday life, from predatory men lurking in the shadows to her truly awful roommate Jacasta (Synnove Karlsen) to an overall feeling of simply not belonging in this place and time.

Desperate to escape the cruelty of her roommate and the party atmosphere in her dorm, Ellie rents an upstairs room on a quiet street from a cranky but seemingly kindhearted old landlady (the late Diana Rigg), who is amused by Ellie’s fascination with the music of HER generation. It’s when Ellie settles in at her new place that “Last Night in Soho” really kicks into the next-level crazy-ass gear, as Ellie finds herself regularly transported to the mid-1960s (Check out that movie theater marquee for “Thunderball!”) and becomes something of a time-travel, mirror-image twin to a beautiful blond aspiring singer named Sandy (Anya Taylor-Joy). At times Ellie is an unseen observer to Sandy’s experiences; on other occasions, it’s more like she’s inhabiting Sandy’s body. It’s even weirder than it sounds, but it’s also different and cool and bizarre.

Focus Features
Aspiring singer Sandy (Anya Taylor-Joy) becomes a sort of time-travel twin for Ellie.

At first it seems as if Sandy is living the life of Ellie’s dreams, as she auditions for a singing gig by delivering a sensually effective rendition of Petula Clark’s “Downtown” and becomes involved with a dashing and handsome talent manager named Jack (Matt Smith), who looks like he stepped out of a hipster TV series. Very quickly, though, it becomes clear Sandy is being exploited and abused by increasingly nefarious forces, much to Ellie’s horror.

Meanwhile, in present day, Ellie creates some exciting, 1960s-inspired fashion designs and finds some comfort in a budding relationship with a sensitive and kind fellow student (Michael Ajao), but she feels she’s being stalked by a mysterious, silver-haired old-timer (Terrence Stamp) who says she looks very familiar to him, and she is haunted in her nightmares by visions that go from the chilling to the blood-spattered and feel more like memories than visions. WHAT IS HAPPENING?!

Co-writer-director Wright is clearly a fan of the London music and movies of the 1960s, as evidenced by his casting of Rita Tushingham (“A Taste of Honey,” “The Knack … and How to Get It,” “Smashing Time”), Terrence Stamp (“The Collector,” “Modesty Blaise”) and Diana Rigg (Emma Peel in the mid-1960s cult hit espionage TV series “The Avengers”), who are all outstanding in key supporting roles. Thomasin McKenzie and Anya Taylor-Joy add to their already impressive resumes with dual lead performances — McKenzie beautifully conveying Ellie’s gift/curse for seeing and experiencing things beyond what most people ever conceive, while Taylor-Joy expertly conveys Sandy’s transformation from hopeful aspiring singer to abused victim to … something else. “Last Night in Soho” is one of the most unusual and exciting movies of the year.

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State Rep. Anna Moeller speaks on the House floor late Wednesday night. | Blue Room Stream

In a night of high emotions, House Democrats voted to repeal the Parental Notice of Abortion Act and change the state’s Health Care Right of Conscience Act relating to COVID-19 — two measures opposed by Republicans, and a few Democrats.

A parent or other adult family member would no longer need to be notified before a minor receives an abortion, under the repeal of a decades-old law the Illinois House sent late Wednesday to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk.

The late-night vote on that controversial topic came on the heels of the Illinois House passing another hot-button measure, sending to the state Senate a measure blocking the use of moral beliefs for refusing to comply with workplace COVID-19 vaccine mandates or other mitigations.

That measure aimed at the coronavirus pandemic passed after a heated debate, with one Republican legislator dubbing the proposed amendment “atrocious,” and a few Democrats breaking ranks and declining to support it.

On the issue of abortion, House members voted to repeal the Parental Notice of Abortion Act and pass the Youth Health and Safety Act. It passed in a 62 to 51 vote with three voting present and two not voting.

Barring any legislative maneuvers, the bill now goes to the governor’s desk.

In a spirited pitch for repeal, state Rep. Anna Moeller, D-Elgin, called the notification law “the last anti-abortion law that we have on our books” and said overturning it ensures “we are protecting our most vulnerable young people in Illinois.”

But emotions ran just as high on the other side of the aisle.

In an impassioned speech opposing the bill, state Rep. Avery Bourne, R-Morrisonville, said a vote for the repeal is not just “failing girls — it’s failing good parents.”

“We’re not talking about 17-year-olds exclusively who are months away from being 18, we’re talking about middle schoolers — potentially parents of middle schoolers — not having the right to know that their daughter is going through this and not having the foreknowledge to know what happens afterwards,” Bourne said.

Blue Room Stream
State Rep. Avery Bourne, R-Morrisonville, speaks on the House floor Wednesday night.

The Legislature passed the Parental Notice of Abortion Act in 1995, but it didn’t go into effect until 2013 due to legal challenges. It requires a doctor providing care to a young person under age 18 who is seeking an abortion to notify a designated adult family member at least 48 hours before the procedure.

Six Democrats voted no on the repeal of the measure, while another three voted present. Two Democrats didn’t vote.

Just moments earlier, members of the House also engaged in a contentious debate late Wednesday on changes to the state’s Health Care Right of Conscience Act before voting to adopt the changes 64 to 52 with two voting present.

That measure now heads to the state Senate for debate.

Democrats contend the act, which has been on the books since 1998, was originally designed to protect doctors, nurses and other health care providers who refused to perform medical procedures — such as abortions — that they’re opposed to.

But House Democrats and members of the Pritzker administration argue the act is being misused by some to refuse to comply with COVID-19 vaccine mandates and other efforts to curb the pandemic.

Still, seven Democrats broke ranks on the measure to vote no, and another two Democrats voted present.

The proposed amendment to that law, sponsored by state Rep. Robyn Gabel, D-Evanston, is intended to make clear that public officials and private companies can impose COVID-19 requirements as part of conditions of employment.

Previous language in her amendment said those who don’t comply with the requirements could be fired, but that language was eliminated in a new amendment filed Wednesday — though officials and companies would still be able to “enforce” the COVID-19 measures or requirements and would not be considered in violation of the act.

Gabel said the removal of that language came from “feedback in committee.”

On Wednesday, Gabel said the law exists “to preserve” the ability of health care providers to refuse to perform some medical procedures that violate their conscience.

Blue Room Stream
State Rep. Robyn Gabel, D-Evanston, reads her proposed changes to the Health Care Right of Conscience Act on the House floor Wednesday night.

“We also know with certainty that the act is being intentionally distorted by those who favor misinformation over fact, and those who are using this act to justify their desire to thumb their noses at the mitigation efforts imposed, by employers,” Gabel said.

Gabel sought to make clear the changes don’t constitute a vaccine mandate, and people can still request exemptions from vaccinations for medical or religious reasons.

Republicans lambasted the proposed changes.

State Rep. Adam Niemerg, R-Dietrich, called the measure “atrocious.”

“This is unbelievable that we’re considering this on the House floor,” Niemerg said. “This is not about the Health Care Right of Conscience. This is about the last 18 months of unilateral authority from the governor. Now he’s asking us to remove the only opposition … so they can force vaccination on us.”

Follow up legislation to a bill creating an elected school board in Chicago was also sent to Pritzker’s desk.

That legislation got the final thumbs up from the Senate Wednesday evening. The bill clarifies that board members will not be compensated and removes a requirement that the mayor seek the advice, and consent, of the City Council for her picks for a hybrid board before the fully elected board is in place.

The bill also moves up a moratorium on school closings from June 2022 to the day the governor signs the legislation. The moratorium would still end when the first elected members of the board take their seats in 2025.

State Sen. Robert Martwick, D-Chicago, said some stakeholders asked for the start of the moratorium to be moved up out of fear that officials would close schools while they could.

In exchange for changing the moratorium, Martwick and others removed the advice and consent requirement.

That legislation passed the Senate 43 to 14 with two not voting. It now heads to the governor’s desk.

A new proposal for redrawn boundaries for the state’s congressional districts based on the latest Census figures also came out Wednesday night.

Wednesday night’s map is the third iteration of proposed congressional boundaries released by the state’s Democratic mapmakers. It keeps the expected split between 14 Democratic seats and three Republican seats seen in a map released over the weekend.

Lawmakers will likely vote on the map Thursday, during their final slated day of veto session.

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