Police and FBI in New Mexico are trying to determine if a series of shootings at offices and homes of five New Mexico Democrats over the last month are related. Nobody has been injured so far, but officials are worried that may not remain the case.
Federal and local authorities in New Mexico are investigating whether several shootings since early December at the offices or homes of five elected Democratic leaders were connected and possibly politically motivated, officials said.
No one was injured in the shootings in Albuquerque involving three residences, a workplace and a campaign office associated with a pair of county commissioners, two state senators and New Mexico’s newly elected attorney general. Three of the shootings took place in December and two this month, the latest of which was on Thursday, the authorities said.
The Albuquerque police chief, Harold Medina, said at a news conference on Thursday that there could be a pattern to the shootings, possibly tied to political affiliation.
“On the surface, that is one of the things that, as a law enforcement agency, we are looking at and is a concern to us,” Chief Medina said.
He said the authorities were still processing evidence and had no one in custody. The department did not announce the shootings earlier, he said, because it was not clear in December whether there might be a pattern.
Mayor Tim Keller of Albuquerque said the authorities were concerned that the shootings might have been targeted and were “possibly politically motivated.”
“This is a high priority for us,” Mr. Keller said at the news conference.
The F.B.I. in Albuquerque is assisting with the investigation, an agency official said at the news conference. The state police were also involved, officials said.
The Albuquerque Police Department provided a timeline of the shootings on Thursday. It said the police had been called that morning to the law office where State Senator Moe Maestas works after gunshots were heard in the area. Three shots were fired at 11:41 a.m., but there was no damage to the building, the police said.
On Tuesday, at least eight shots were fired at the home of State Senator Linda Lopez, the police said.
On Dec. 11, the department said, “more than a dozen gunshot impacts” were found at the house of Debbie O’Malley, a Bernalillo County commissioner who left office at the end of the month because she was limited to two terms.
On Dec. 4, eight rounds were fired at the home of Adriann Barboa, also a Bernalillo County commissioner, the police said.
The police said in a statement late Thursday that they were also examining whether shots that were fired in December at the former campaign office of Raul Torrez, who had just been elected New Mexico’s attorney general, were part of the pattern.
Mr. Torrez moved out of the office after the November election. On the morning of Dec. 10, the Police Department’s ShotSpotter gunshot detection system identified several gunshots in the area of the building that the authorities now think “may be tied to the string of shootings involving elected officials,” the police statement said.
“These shootings are serious crimes, regardless of whether anyone was injured,” Mr. Keller, the mayor, said on Twitter on Thursday, referring to the Albuquerque investigation.
While the authorities have not definitively tied the gunfire to politics or ideology, the investigation reflects national concern over threats and intimidation against lawmakers, public officials and, in some cases, their family members.
At some point, bullets are going to start hitting people, and even if nobody is physically hurt, everyone will be looking over their shoulder. That's how domestic terrorism works, folks.
This is a terrorist attack, as sure as the sun on New Mexico's flag rises.
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