'Failed Republican candidate' arrested as 'key suspect' in series of drive-by shootings at lawmakers’ homes
Solomon Peña, a New Mexico GOP candidate who lost a November election, was arrested as a key suspect in a series of drive-by shootings that specifically targeted Democratic lawmakers’ homes, The Associated Press reports.
Peña suggested that the election was “rigged” after he lost to incumbent state Rep. Miguel P. Garcia by approximately 3,600 votes.
NBC reported in November that many “Republicans fear democracy is in peril because they believe that elections are rigged against them” and that former president Donald Trump’s false claim of voter fraud have encouraged his supporters to “use force or intimidation” — hence the Jan. 6 insurrection. Peña has confirmed in a tweet that he was in Washington, D.C. on the day of the attack.
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Later that month, Peña also tweeted a photo of himself wearing a "Make America Great Again" sweatshirt, with the caption "Trump just announced for 2024. I stand with him. I never conceded my HD 14 race. Now researching my options." Around the same time, the 39-year-old Albuquerque resident took it upon himself to show up at the homes of elected officials uninvited, in an attempt to prove that he won the election. Not too long after that, the shootings began on December 4.
Harold Medina, Albuquerque Police Chief called Peña a “mastermind” of a “politically motivated conspiracy” that resulted in the shootings, which occurred at the homes of Bernalillo County Commissioner Adriann Barboas, New Mexico Rep. Javier Martinez, Bernalillo County Commissioner Debbie O’Mally — whose home received “more than a dozen rounds” of bullets — and lastly, New Mexico Senator Linda Lopez, who confirmed that three bullets grazed her 10-year-old daughter’s room.
Peña, although the key suspect, is not the only one. The “failed Republican candidate” paid four other men cash to execute the shootings using stolen cars, although he, himself, did “pull the trigger” in one of the shootings.
A few hours after investigators detected gunfire rippling through Sen. Lopez’s neighborhood, an officer discovered bullet casings in a car driven by Jose Trujillo and registered under Peña’s name. The car contained over 800 fentanyl pills and two firearms.
The New Mexico GOP responded to Peña’s arrest in a statement, saying, “If Peña is found guilty, he must be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
More arrests and charges are on the horizon, according to police, and the investigation remains ongoing.
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