Arrest in shootings of New Mexico Dems Offices, homes

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A male suspect is in custody in connection with a series of shootings targeting the homes or offices of Democratic lawmakers, and a firearm linked to one of the attacks has been recovered by police, Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina announced Monday.

"We are not going to get into details as this is still an active investigation," Medina said. "We're trying to still wait and see which cases are related in which cases are not related."

The announcement comes after police said a sixth shooting, which happened in early December, may be tied to the apparent string of attacks. The home of Rep. Javier Martinez, the incoming New Mexico State House speaker, was targeted.

Martinez inspected his home following reports of gunshots fired into other Democratic lawmakers homes and discovered what he thought was damage from gunfire heard in early December. Detectives said they located evidence of a shooting.

Albuquerque police are working with state police and the FBI to investigate the shootings.

Medina said Monday that investigators are still working to confirm whether the shootings are connected or motivated by political ideology, though they have "ideas" regarding the suspect's motive.

Whether other New Mexico lawmakers are still at risk is "unknown," Medina said.

The shootings began in early December when eight rounds were fired at the home of Bernalillo County Commissioner Adriann Barboa, police said in a press release. A week later, more than a dozen shots were fired at the home of former Bernalillo County Commissioner Debbie O’Malley.

Another shooting, occurring between those two attacks, was detected by police technology in the vicinity of New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez' former campaign office. No one was in the building at the time, and police found no damage.

This week, both state Sen. Linda Lopez' home and state Sen. Moe Maestas' office were targeted.

So far, no one has been injured in the shootings.

The attack on Maestas' office, which occurred on Jan. 5, is the most recent attack known. He told the Associated Press that employees at his law office heard loud, rapid-fire shots just outside on Thursday and called 911.

Police in Albuquerque, New Mexico, arrested a former Republican candidate for the state House of Representatives on Monday in connection with multiple shootings at local Democratic politicians’ homes.

Solomon Peña is accused of conspiring with and paying four other men to shoot at the homes of two county commissioners and two state legislators, Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina said. He was arrested after a brief standoff with a police SWAT team.

The department has been investigating at least six shootings between Dec. 4 and Jan. 5. Four of those have been linked to Peña, police said, and two others are still under investigation.

“It is believed that he is the mastermind that was behind this,” Medina said at a news conference Monday.

Peña launched an unsuccessful bid for New Mexico’s 14th House District in 2022, losing by a decisive 47 percentage points to his Democratic opponent, state Rep. Miguel Garcia.

He faced criticism during his bid after Garcia filed a suit to disqualify him from office over a 2008 conviction for stealing in a “smash and grab” robbery. Peña served seven years in prison, but a judge ruled that laws barring convicted felons from office were unconstitutional.

Peña ― an outspoken supporter of former President Donald Trump ― has continued to dispute the results of the race, claiming election fraud, The Albuquerque Journal noted.

The criminal complaint against Peña includes chilling details. In one case, bullets tore through the walls of a 10-year-old girl's bedroom as she slept. Just before that attack, police allege, Peña had urged the gunmen to aim lower when they shot at politicians' houses.

Charges against Peña, whom police call the "mastermind" behind the string of attacks, include conspiracy to commit a felony, shooting at an occupied dwelling, and shooting from a vehicle. He was booked into the Albuquerque Metropolitan Detention Center late Monday.

The evidence against Peña includes confidential witness testimony, cellphone records, bullet casings and surveillance footage, according to Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina. Court documents also show Peña appears to have taken a selfie with one of his accused co-conspirators.

The first shooting happened on Dec. 4, when eight rounds were fired into the residence of Bernalillo County Commissioner Adriann Barboa. Four days later, the home of House Speaker Javier Martinez came under attack in the North Valley area. And on Dec. 11, more than a dozen shots were fired into the home of then-Bernalillo County Commissioner Debbie O'Malley.

According to the Albuquerque Journal, O'Malley and Barboa were two of the four county commissioners who voted unanimously to certify the general election results.

Barboa said she was coming home from Christmas shopping when she saw her home had been hit by gunfire.

"My house had four shots through the front door and windows, where just hours before my grandbaby and I were playing in the living room," she said in a statement. "Processing this attack is heavy, especially knowing that other women of color elected officials have also been targeted."

On Jan. 3, more than a dozen shots were fired at the home of state Sen. Linda Lopez.

Detectives had initially listed two additional shootings as being potentially part of the same pattern, but police now say they have no evidence linking those incidents to the others.

On Jan. 3, just before 1 a.m., automatic ShotSpotter sensors reported gunfire near Lopez's home. An officer who responded to the scene recovered shell casings, but saw no signs that bullets had struck anything. The state senator later said she heard loud bangs, which she attributed to fireworks.

But around the same time, Lopez's daughter, 10, came to her mother's bedroom saying "she believed a spider woke her up by crawling on her face," according to the criminal complaint. When Lopez took her daughter back to bed, the girl "asked why it felt like there was sand in the bed."

It wasn't until morning, when Lopez saw bullet holes in her house, that she realized what had happened and called police.

"As it turned out, sheetrock dust was blown onto Linda's daughter's face and bed resulting from firearm projectile(s) passing inside her bedroom overhead," the complaint states.

For the final shooting, Peña allegedly came along and pulled the trigger on one of the weapons, said Albuquerque Police Deputy Commander Kyle Hartsock.

According to the criminal complaint, a confidential witness told detectives that Peña apparently took part because he was unhappy the bullets hit high on the homes and the shootings took place late at night.

Pena, the complaint states, "wanted them to aim lower and shoot around 8 p.m. because occupants would more likely not be laying down." The witness adds that the more aggressive approach made the gunmen uneasy "since they knew doing so would more likely end in death or injury."

About 40 minutes after the attack on Lopez's home, a sheriff's deputy pulled over a silver Nissan Maxima for a traffic stop related to the car's tags, and the driver, José Trujillo, was found to have an outstanding felony arrest warrant. When the car was searched, police found 800 pills of suspected fentanyl, a large amount of cash, and two guns in the trunk: an AR-15 style weapon and a Glock 17 with a drum magazine. Tests later confirmed that the Glock had been used in the shooting at Lopez's home.

The Maxima that Trujillo was driving was registered to Peña, according to law enforcement. It was stopped less than five miles from Lopez's home. Describing the attackers' methods, police say the gunmen apparently stole cars to carry out several attacks. A newly stolen red truck was used in the Lopez attack, police say, suggesting that when Trujillo was stopped, the alleged gunmen had already gotten rid of the stolen vehicle.

Police later got a search warrant for the cellphone of Demetrio Trujillo — whose relationship to José Trujillo isn't spelled out in court papers, but who is named as Peña's main co-conspirator. On it, investigators uncovered a trove of messages from Peña, including exact addresses of lawmakers who were targeted.

The investigation into a failed New Mexico political candidate and a string of shootings has expanded, with officials now looking to determine if contributions to the suspect's campaign were funneled by drug trafficking, police said

Albuquerque police on Thursday said that detectives and other law enforcement agencies are trying to determine whether financial contributions to Pena's campaign were "generated from narcotics trafficking and whether campaign laws were violated.”

But a man who police have said was allegedly involved, Jose Trujillo, donated more than $5,000 to Pena's campaign and that man's mother also donated about $4,000 to the campaign, officials said. Their donations make up almost 40% of the money raised by Pena during his campaign, police said.

Trujillo is listed as a cashier in Pena's campaign reports.