APD: Shots fired at homes, businesses of 5 elected leaders

Albuquerque police are investigating whether local elected officials are being targeted.

Albuquerque police announced Thursday morning that three politicians had their homes shot up over the past few weeks.

Mayor Tim Keller and APD Chief Harold Medina held a news conference to provide an update on the investigation Thursday afternoon. They shared that another elected leader had shots fired outside his office Thursday morning.

Note: If you’re on our app, click here to watch the livestream.

Then, in an email, police announced Thursday evening that multiple shots were reported in December at the former campaign office of Raúl Torrez.

TIMELINE

• Around 4:41 p.m. on Dec. 4, police say someone shot eight rounds at Bernalillo County Commissioner Adriann Barboa’s home.
• Multiple shots were reported in the early morning of Dec. 10 at the former campaign office of Raúl Torrez, who was elected as New Mexico attorney general. Following the November election, Torrez has already moved out of the office.
• On Dec. 11, police say more than a dozen gunshots struck the home of former county commissioner Debbie O’Malley.
• Just after midnight on Jan. 3, at least eight shots were fired at the home of New Mexico Sen. Linda Lopez.
• Moe Maestas, newly-appointed state senator and former representative, had shots fired outside his office Thursday morning.

“We are concerned, of course, that these could be connected, and that these could be targeted,” Keller said.

Maestas said he was reading an article about the other incidents involving his colleagues when he got the call.

“We can take the hits here and there, but violence is a whole other level,” Maestas said. “I don’t think I was specifically targeted for anything I did or said, but there’s something happening in this city.”

Barboa said she’s living in the same home most of her life, and her house got shot up straight through the front door.

“I couldn’t help but think of I had just been playing right here with my granddaughter and my daughter was here, and we were getting ready for Christmas, and just how terrifying that is,” Barboa said. “Unfortunately, it’s what too many of our Bernalillo County residents go through all the time.”

Someone then hit O’Malley’s home a week later. O’Malley said the shots woke her up in the middle of the night.

“It was so loud, I thought somebody was banging on my front door with their fist,” she said.

At the time of the first two shootings, Medina said there was not enough evidence to make a connection.

If you have any information, call the Albuquerque Police Department at 505-242-COPS (2677) or Crime Stoppers at 505-843-STOP (7867).

This is a developing story. Stay with KOB 4 Eyewitness News and KOB.com for updates.