ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – How did two small kids get their hands on a loaded gun? It’s a question we have had since the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office released a drone video. Now, that question has gone viral.

BCSO Sheriff John Allen says those boys are lucky to be alive. This is not their first or even second run-in with this family. 

Allen says they’ve been called to that home more than 50 times. We’re now learning it could be much more than that. From Children, Youth & Families Department involvement to domestic violence and allegations of abuse.

While we don’t know what happened during all of those interactions with BCSO, we did find a report from just one week before deputies found those boys with a loaded gun in February.

Court documents say a man living at that house pointed a gun at those boys and was overheard by a neighbor saying he would kill them.

Gabriel Roybal is a convicted felon who has a lengthy criminal history. He is not the father of those two boys, but documents say he is the father of another child at that home.

In February, those two boys told police Roybal pointed a gun at them saying he would hurt them. They described the gun as a silver and black gun, similar to what is seen in the drone video.

So, mom called deputies and filed an emergency order of protection. Documents say Roybal took off from the house. When police caught up with him, he did not have a gun and claimed he knows he is not allowed to have one. Roybal was arrested and is being held on charges related to that incident.

But, is the silver and black gun shown in the drone video Roybal’s gun? If so, will he face charges for that? BCSO is not commenting on that, saying they are actively investigating.

But, we learned weeks after Roybal’s arrest, a grand jury indicted him on many crimes, including making a firearm accessible to a minor — also known as Bennie’s Law.

Allen says they’ve contacted CYFD over and over again on Monday. He says those boys always end up back at that home.

“These children are not getting the proper care that they need, everyone is going to say, am I throwing shade at the parents, absolutely I am. This is failing. They just dealt with law enforcement. It was almost a deadly force encounter which my deputies had to make a very difficult decision. With children being victims of domestic violence, seeing trauma, even have a firearm pointed at them, we can tell why their behavior is the way it is,” said Allen.

In the meantime, some lawmakers are fuming. We talked to Bernalillo County Sen. Nicole Tobiassen. She says Allen went back to actually count every call they’ve had at that home and discovered they’ve been called 180 times. 

We have not been able to independently confirm that number.

“If we continue to ignore their screams for help, which is really what this is. 180 times, and what they’re doing is every time CYFD takes them back to that household, they’re running away. They don’t know another way. We’re basically fostering a lifetime cycle of crime in this state until we get down to the root cause,” said Tobiassen. 

We have reached out to CYFD and the governor’s office asking for an interview. The governor is in Washington, D.C. and a spokesperson for CYFD says all these months later — remember this happened in February — they are still trying to determine what the facts are.