by Trevor Schakohl
Albuquerque, NM – The Albuquerque Police Department (APD) announced Monday that a former Republican New Mexico State House candidate was arrested for shootings at the homes of elected officials.
At a press conference on Monday, APD Commander Kyle Hartsock revealed that Solomon Pena lost his November race against incumbent Democratic State Representative Michael Garcia, who contracted someone to carry out two shootings at elected officials’ homes for cash. According to APD Chief Harold Medina, Pena has been accused of conspiring and paying for the shootings of two county commissioners’ houses and two state legislators’ houses.
APD has arrested Solomon Peña for the recent shootings at local lawmakers’ homes. Peña, an unsuccessful legislative candidate in the 2022 election, is accused of conspiring with, and paying four other men to shoot at the homes of 2 county commissioners and 2 state legislators.
— APD Chief of Police (@ABQPoliceChief) January 16, 2023
In November, Pena made unannounced visits to the homes of three allegedly targeted officials, Democratic Bernalillo County Commissioner Adriann Barboa, former County Commissioner Debbie O’Malley and Rep. Linda Lopez, claiming his lost election was a fraud, and repeatedly made similar allegations on social media, the Albuquerque Journal reported. He previously spent seven years in prison after being convicted in 2008 of large-scale stealing from retail stores.
Barboa and O’Malley voted to certify the election results on Nov. 18, according to the Albuquerque Journal.
Authorities have evidence that Pena pulled a trigger in one of the shootings, with Bernalillo County Sheriff’s pulling over a car used to facilitate that shooting 40 minutes later and recovering multiple firearms, Hartsock said in the press conference.
The APD did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for further comment.
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