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Solomon
Pena,
center,
a
Republican
candidate
for New
Mexico
House
District
14, is
taken
into
custody
by
Albuquerque
Police
officers,
Monday,
Jan. 16,
2023, in
southwest
Albuquerque,
N.M.
Pena was
arrested
in
connection
with a
recent
series
of
drive-by
shootings
targeting
Democratic
lawmakers
in New
Mexico.
(Roberto
E.
Rosales/The
Albuquerque
Journal
via AP) |
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Solomon
Pena and
Jose
Trujillo,
one of
the men
he
reportedly
paid to
do the
drive-by
shootings,
are seen
here in
a car.
(Courtesy
of the
Albuquerque
Police
Department) |
| |
New
details
emerge
about
plot to
shoot at
New
Mexico
Democrats’
homes
Amy
Gardner,
and Dan
Rosenzweig-Ziff
washingtonpost.com
The
arrest
of a
defeated
candidate
for the
New
Mexico
legislature
on
charges
that he
orchestrated
a plot
to shoot
up the
homes of
four
Democratic
officials
in
Albuquerque
prompted
widespread
condemnation
Tuesday
as well
as
accusations
that the
stolen-election
rhetoric
among
supporters
of
former
president
Donald
Trump
continues
to
incite
violence.
Following
the
Monday
arrest,
new
details
emerged
Tuesday
about
the
alleged
conspiracy,
including
how
close a
spray of
bullets
came to
the
sleeping
10-year-old
daughter
of a
state
senator.
Albuquerque
police
said in
charging
documents
released
Tuesday
that
Solomon
Peña,
39, who
lost a
state
House
seat in
November
by a
nearly
2-1
margin
but
complained
that his
defeat
was
rigged,
hatched
the
plot.
Police
accused
him of
conspiring
with
four
accomplices
to drive
past the
officials’
homes
and fire
at them.
Peña
“provided
firearms
and cash
payments
and
personally
participated
in at
least
one
shooting,”
the
documents
said.
They
alleged
he
intended
to cause
“serious
injury
or
death”
to the
people
inside
their
homes,
the
documents
said.
The
group
allegedly
stole at
least
two cars
used in
the
incidents,
police
said.
One of
the
targets
of the
attack
said the
shootings
were
part of
a
lineage
of
violence
that
stems
from
Trump’s
false
claims
of a
stolen
election
and that
includes
the Jan.
6, 2021,
attack
on the
U.S.
Capitol.
“You
think it
wouldn’t
happen
here,
that
someone
would do
this to
local
officials,”
said
former
Bernalillo
commissioner
Debbie
O’Malley,
whose
home was
shot at
Dec. 11.
“There’s
been
this
narrative
for a
long
time: If
you
don’t
get your
way,
it’s
okay to
be
violent.
The
message
came
from the
top. It
came
from
Trump.”
Police
in New
Mexico
said on
Jan. 16
that
they had
arrested
a man in
connection
with
shootings
at the
homes
and
offices
of six
elected
Democratic
officials.
(Video:
Reuters)
Peña
faces a
raft of
charges
including
four
counts
of
shooting
into an
occupied
dwelling,
four
counts
of
shooting
at or
from a
motor
vehicle,
four
counts
of
conspiracy,
possessing
a
firearm
with a
felony
conviction,
attempted
aggravated
battery
with a
deadly
weapon
and
criminal
solicitation.
According
to the
charging
documents,
the most
recent
incident
occurred
Jan. 3,
when at
least a
dozen
rounds
were
fired
into the
Albuquerque
home of
state
Sen.
Linda
Lopez
(D).
Lopez
told
police
she had
initially
thought
the loud
bangs
she
heard
just
after
midnight
were
fireworks.
But in
the
middle
of the
night,
her
10-year-old
daughter
awoke
thinking
a spider
had
crawled
across
her face
and
wondering
why her
bed felt
like it
was
filled
with
sand.
At
daybreak,
Lopez
noticed
holes in
the
house
that
made her
suspect
gunfire.
After
realizing
that it
was
drywall
dust
from
bullet
holes
that had
awakened
her
daughter,
she
called
the
authorities,
according
to the
charging
papers.
The
documents
also
allege
that
Peña
personally
participated
in the
Lopez
shooting
because
he was
displeased
that
prior
shootings
had
aimed
“so high
up on
the
walls.”
Peña
brought
an
automatic
rifle to
Lopez’s
home,
but it
jammed
during
the
incident
and did
not
fire,
according
to the
documents.
Police
accused
Peña of
orchestrating
similar
attacks
in
December
on the
Albuquerque
homes of
New
Mexico
state
Rep.
Javier
Martinez,
Bernalillo
County
Commissioner
Adriann
Barboa
and
O’Malley,
who at
the time
was also
a county
commissioner.
They did
not say
whether
the
gunfire
at those
homes
came
close to
striking
anyone.
Lopez,
Martinez
and
Barboa
could
not be
reached
for
comment.
Before
his run
for
office,
Peña
served
nearly
seven
years in
prison
on
convictions
related
to a
smash-and-grab
scheme
that
included
burglary,
larceny
and
contributing
to the
delinquency
of a
minor.
Democrats
had
sought
unsuccessfully
in court
to have
him
removed
from the
ballot,
citing
his
record
of
felonies.
In an
interview,
Albuquerque
Police
Chief
Harold
Medina
said he
has no
doubt
that
Peña was
motivated
by
Trump’s
false
claims
of
election
fraud
following
the
former
president’s
2020
defeat.
Medina
said
Peña
regularly
expressed
extreme
views on
social
media
and
boasted
of
attending
Trump’s
Stop the
Steal
rally in
Washington
on Jan.
6, 2021.
“The
individual
that
we’re
charging
believed
in that
conspiracy,”
Medina
said.
“He did
believe
that his
election
was
unfair
and he
did
escalate
and
resort
to
violence
as a
means to
find
justice.”
Medina
said
federal
law
enforcement
is also
investigating
potential
federal
firearms
violations
related
to the
shootings,
as well
as
whether
Peña
participated
in the
Jan. 6
riots.
An FBI
spokesman
said the
agency
is
assisting
local
authorities
in their
investigation
and
declined
to
comment
further.
Trump
spokesman
Steven
Cheung
called
it
“appalling
that
some
people
would
use this
tragedy
to try
to score
cheap
political
points.
President
Trump
had
nothing
to do
with
this and
any
assertion
otherwise
is
totally
reprehensible.”
Lawyers
for Peña
and two
of his
alleged
co-conspirators,
Demitrio
Trujillo
and Jose
Trujillo,
could
not be
reached
for
comment.
Albuquerque
Mayor
Tim
Keller
(D) said
Peña
visited
all four
targets’
homes in
the days
leading
up to
the
attacks,
seeking
to
persuade
them
that the
result
of his
election
had been
rigged.
“What’s
absolutely
disturbing
and
terrifying
is that
he went
from
that to
literally
contracting
felons
who were
out on
warrant
to shoot
up their
houses,”
Keller
said.
“That’s
the leap
he took
within a
matter
of
days.”
Keller
said it
is not
clear
why Peña
did not
target
his
opponent,
Democratic
state
Rep.
Miguel
Garcia.
He said
police
have
collected
an
overwhelming
amount
of
evidence,
including
shell
casings
found at
the
crime
scenes
and in
the
recovered
stolen
vehicles
as well
as
texted
instructions,
including
the
targets’
addresses,
from
Peña to
his
alleged
co-conspirators.
Colorado
Secretary
of State
Jena
Griswold,
an
outspoken
critic
of the
threatening
rhetoric
of
election
deniers
and a
target
of
frequent
online
attacks,
called
on
Republicans
to
condemn
the
violence
in
Albuquerque
and
urged
voters
to
reject
candidates
who
don’t.
She
cited
the plot
to
kidnap
Michigan
Gov.
Gretchen
Whitmer
as well
as the
more
recent
attack
on Paul
Pelosi,
former
House
speaker
Nancy
Pelosi’s
husband,
as other
troubling
recent
examples
of
political
violence.
“It’s
horrific,”
Griswold
said.
“There
are so
many
people
who have
to look
over
their
shoulder
living
in fear
in an
atmosphere
of
political
violence.
As a
nation
we’re
just
lucky
that the
bullets
didn’t
land.”
Some
Republicans
joined
in the
condemnations.
Ryan
Lane,
the New
Mexico
House
Republican
leader,
praised
law
enforcement
for
their
quick
investigation.
“New
Mexico
House
Republicans
condemn
violence
in any
form and
are
grateful
no one
was
injured,”
Lane
said.
The
Republican
Party of
New
Mexico
issued a
statement
late
Tuesday
that
made no
mention
of
Peña’s
candidacy
or his
denial
of
election
results,
but said
the
accusations
against
him “are
serious,
and he
should
be held
accountable
if the
charges
are
validated
in
court.”
The
incident
also
prompted
a new
push for
gun
control.
In Santa
Fe, New
Mexico
Gov.
Michelle
Lujan
Grisham
(D)
called
for a
ban on
assault
weapons
in an
address
to the
state
legislature
on the
first
day of
its 2023
session.
“There
are
elected
officials
in this
room
today
whose
homes
were
shot at
in
despicable
acts of
political
violence,”
she
said.
Peña
allegedly
conspired
with
four
other
men,
according
to the
charging
documents,
hatching
a plan
to steal
cars to
use
during
the
attacks
and then
abandon
them.
Subsequent
investigations
of
stolen
vehicles
found
with
matching
shell
casings
appear
to
confirm
that
plan,
the
police
said.
Police
said
they
examined
the
cellphone
of one
of the
alleged
co-conspirators,
Demitrio
Trujillo,
and
found
that
Peña had
sent him
the
addresses
of the
targets,
and that
Trujillo
had then
searched
for the
addresses
on his
phone.
Peña
started
organizing
the
shootings
soon
after
the
election,
according
to the
police
report.
On Nov.
12, he
texted
Barboa’s
address
to
Trujillo.
A week
and a
half
later,
Peña
texted
Trujillo
a
passage
from an
unknown
book.
“It was
only the
additional
incentive
of a
threat
of civil
war that
empowered
a
president
to
complete
the
reformist
project,”
the text
read.
On Dec.
8, Peña
sent the
address
of
Martinez,
whose
home was
attacked
that
night,
and that
of
O’Malley.
The
texts
between
Peña and
Trujillo
contained
plans to
meet in
parking
lots,
stores
and fast
food
restaurants,
according
to the
police
report.
The
charging
documents
also
recounted
the
recollections
of an
unnamed
confidential
informant
who said
that
Peña was
not
happy
that the
shootings
would
take
place
late at
night,
when
they
were
less
likely
to
injury
anyone.
“Solomon
wanted
the
shootings
to be
more
aggressive”
and
“wanted
them to
aim
lower
and
shoot
around
8PM
because
occupants
would
more
likely
not be
laying
down,”
according
to the
documents.
According
to the
documents,
Jose
Trujillo
was
arrested
less
than an
hour
after
the
Lopez
shooting
and just
a few
miles
away,
after he
was
pulled
over for
an
expired
registration
in a
Nissan
Maxima
registered
to Peña.
In
addition
to two
weapons
found in
the
trunk,
police
found
800
pills
believed
to be
counterfeit
Oxycodone
as well
as cash.
Police
also
discovered
that
Trujillo
had a
warrant
out for
his
arrest.
Police
said
Peña
paid his
co-conspirators
at least
$500 for
their
roles.
O’Malley
told The
Washington
Post
that
Peña
visited
her home
on Nov.
10, days
after he
lost the
election.
“He was
agitated
and
aggressive
and
upset
that he
did not
win,”
O’Malley
said.
Peña
told
O’Malley
that he
had
knocked
on tons
of doors
across
his
district,
which
should
have led
to him
winning
more
votes.
She
rebuffed
his
request
that she
sign a
document
alleging
the
election
was
fraudulent,
so he
left.
A week
later,
on Dec.
11, a
loud pop
— “like
a fist
just
banging
on our
front
door,”
she said
— woke
up her
and her
husband.
There
were
four
more
bangs.
“Oh my
goodness,
gunshots,”
she
remembered
thinking.
No one
was
injured,
but 12
shots
were
fired at
her
house.
O’Malley
said
that
because
her
grandchildren
often
sleep
over,
she now
worries
what
could
have
happened
if they
had been
there.
She said
she also
worries
about
what the
attacks
mean for
democracy.
“Someone
has
threatened
my home
and
feels
that
it’s
okay to
shoot at
my home
where my
family
is
because
they
didn’t
get
their
way,”
she
said. “I
absolutely
blame
election
denialism
and
Trump. I
couldn’t
tell you
what the
solution
is.”
Devlin
Barrett,
Isaac
Arnsdorf
and
Alice
Crites
contributed
to this
report.
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