Police Investigate Shootings at New Mexico Officials’ Homes and Offices
Victoria Bekiempis Guardian UK
The New Mexico state senator Linda Lopez shows bullet holes in her garage door after her home was shot at last month. (photo: Albuquerque Journal/Rex/Shutterstock)
Albuquerque police say houses and workplaces of state and county politicians have been hit by gunfire over the last month
The shootings occurred over approximately the past month and were directed at two county commissioners, two state senators and New Mexico’s new attorney general, according to KQRE News.
Detectives are investigating whether the shootings are related. Nobody was hurt but three homes were damaged.
The investigation comes as the US marks two years since the January 6 insurrection, when a mob of Trump supporters swarmed the US Capitol attempting to violently prevent members of Congress from certifying the election of Joe Biden to the presidency.
Security concerns for lawmakers have only intensified since then. The US Capitol police reported 9,625 threats and directions of interest – that is, actions or statements that cause concern – against members of Congress in 2021, in comparison with 3,939 in 2017.
Despite these concerns, Republicans fresh off their narrow majority win in the 2022 midterms have removed metal detectors that were installed outside the House chamber following the 2021 attack.
The first shooting in Albuquerque that forms part of the investigation was on 4 December, when an unknown person fired eight rounds at the residence of the county commissioner, Adriann Barboa, police said.
On 11 December, “more than a dozen gunshot impacts were identified on walls and the house” of former county commissioner Debbie O’Malley, and approximately eight shots were fired at the home of state senator Linda Lopez on 3 January. On Thursday, one shooting appeared to target state senator Moe Maestas’s law office.
