Wannabe GOP Candidate Orchestrated Shootings at NM Democrats’ Homes, Cops Say
Monday saw the arrest of a Republican candidate for New Mexico State Legislature. a string of recent shootings According to police, the officers arrived at the offices and homes local Democratic officials.
Solomon Pena, 39 is accused of conspiring to pay four men to shoot at two state legislators’ homes. “It is believed that he is the mastermind behind this,” Medina said, according to NBC News.
Investigators were able to connect Pena to the case after obtaining ballistic evidence from one shooting. Pena was then taken into custody by the Albuquerque SWAT team following a brief standoff. An archival video of Pena’s arrest was taken by an Albuquerque Journal Reporter showed a man wearing glasses and a sweatshirt, who was escorted to the squad car. He was then patted down and taken inside the vehicle.
Pena was first involved in four shooting incidents that occurred Dec. 4, when eight rounds of ammunition were fired at Bernalillo County Commissioner’s southeast Albuquerque residence. Adriann Barboa. On Dec. 10, the former campaign offices of Raúl Torrez, the state’s new attorney general, were assailed by gunfire. Just one day after that, more than a dozen gunshots hit the home of former Bernalillo County Commissioner Debbie O’Malley.
Finally, on Jan. 3, eight shots were fired at the home of state Senator Linda Lopez, who said in a statement that three of the bullets had passed through her 10-year-old daughter’s bedroom.
“APD essentially discovered what we had all feared, and what we all suspected, that these shootings were indeed politically motivated,” Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller said Monday.
Police said they had no evidence to connect Pena to two other similar shootings in recent weeks—a Dec. 10 incident at the home of State House Speaker-elect Javier Martinez, and a Jan. 5 report from outside the offices of newly appointed state Sen. Antonio “Moe” Maestas.
Six shootings resulted in no injuries.
Less than a month before the shooting at Barboa’s home, Pena lost the race for New Mexico House’s 14th District, which oversees the South Valley area of Albuquerque, by 47 percentage points. His Democratic opponent, state Rep. Miguel Garcia, secured 5,679 votes to Peña’s 2,033, according to the Journal.
“I dissent,” Pena tweeted On Nov. “I am the MAGA king.”
Pena maintained that he had won the election in the days after his defeat. tweeting on Nov. 15 that he “never conceded my HD 14 race” and that he was “[n]ow researching my options.”
Over the summer, Garcia mounted a legal challenge attempting to block Pena from running for office, arguing that the 39-year-old’s conviction for a spate of “smash and grab” robberies targeting several big-box stores in 2008 disqualified him. Pena was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for his involvement in the scheme. In September, a district judge ruled that a state law prohibiting former felons from holding office under most circumstances was unconstitutional, clearing the way for Pena’s candidacy.
“I had nothing more than a desire to improve my lot in life,” Pena said at the time, according to KOAT-TV.
State records obtained from the Santa Fe New Mexican in August reflected 19 felonies on Pena’s rap sheet, including “burglary, larceny, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and receiving stolen property,” the newspaper reported.
Reached by the Mexican Newcomers, Pena initially invoked his Fifth Amendment privileges against self-incrimination before later telling the reporter that he believed only certain kinds of criminals, like “a child rapist,” would cause voters to balk at the ballot box. He later reportedly texted the reporter: “I hope you are rich. Be at peace.”
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