“We’re worried and concerned that these are connected and possibly politically motivated or personally motivated,” Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller, left, stated earlier this month of a string of shootings. He’s seen right here alongside Police Chief Harold Medina throughout a press convention by way of the Albuquerque Police Department’s Facebook livestream.

Screenshot by NPR

cover caption

toggle caption

Screenshot by NPR

“We’re worried and concerned that these are connected and possibly politically motivated or personally motivated,” Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller, left, stated earlier this month of a string of shootings. He’s seen right here alongside Police Chief Harold Medina throughout a press convention by way of the Albuquerque Police Department’s Facebook livestream.

Screenshot by NPR

Solomon Peña, who ran for a state House seat in New Mexico as a Republican final November, was arrested Monday in Albuquerque for allegedly paying 4 males to shoot on the houses and companies of 4 elected officers within the space, police stated.

Booking information from the Albuquerque Metropolitan Detention Center listing a number of counts, together with conspiracy to commit a felony, taking pictures at dwellings or occupied buildings, and taking pictures from a car.

Peña, 39, allegedly employed the boys to hold out the shootings of the elected officers, all Democrats, and gave out the politicians’ addresses over the cellphone. Police even have surveillance footage and witnesses, in response to Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina.

“APD essentially discovered what we had all feared, and what we had suspected, that these shootings were indeed politically motivated, and that has basically been confirmed by this investigation,” Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller, a Democrat, stated.

The first taking pictures occurred Dec. 4, when eight rounds had been fired into the residence of Bernalillo County Commissioner Adriann Barboa. Per week later, greater than a dozen pictures had been fired into the house of then-Bernalillo County Commissioner Debbie O’Malley.

Barboa stated she got here residence from Christmas procuring and noticed her residence had been shot.

“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 stated in a statement. “Processing this attack is heavy, especially knowing that other women of color elected officials have also been targeted.”

On Jan. 3, not less than eight pictures had been fired into the house of State Sen. Linda Lopez, and on Jan. 5, pictures had been fired within the neighborhood of State Sen. Moe Maestas’ legislation workplace, however no injury to the constructing was discovered, in response to a police statement.

Police stated no one was injured in any of the shootings.

During the Jan. 5 taking pictures, Peña allegedly went with the gunman to Maesta’s workplace and fired one of many weapons, stated Albuquerque Police Deputy Commander Kyle Hartsock.

About 40 minutes after that taking pictures, a automotive was pulled over and police recovered two weapons. Tests confirmed that one of many weapons had been used within the taking pictures.

Pena’s arrest comes a day earlier than the New Mexico legislative session resumes.

“I hope, personally, too, our legislators can breathe a sigh of relief,” Keller stated. “They can go back to focusing on the legislative session. I also know that fundamentally, at the end of the day, this was about a right-wing radical, an election denier who was arrested today, and someone who did the worst imaginable thing you can do when you have a political disagreement, which is turn that to violence.”

Pena ran for the District 14 seat of the New Mexico House of Representatives because the Republican nominee however misplaced within the common election to Democrat Miguel Garcia, who acquired 73.6% of the vote.

Peña is a supporter of former president Donald Trump, and upon Trump’s announcement that he could be working for reelection in 2024, Peña tweeted, “I stand with him. I never conceded my HD 14 race. Now researching my options.”