New details emerge about plot to shoot at New Mexico Democrats’ homes

A former Republican candidate for the New Mexico House was arrested Monday for allegedly orchestrating a series of drive-by shootings targeting Democratic state officials this winter, Albuquerque police said.

Solomon Peña, who lost the November election to incumbent Rep. Miguel P. Garcia (D), paid four other men to shoot at the homes of two county commissioners and two state legislators, the Albuquerque police acting commander, Kyle Hartsock, said Monday at a news conference.

Five people were involved in the conspiracy, but it is unclear if all of the hired gunmen knew the targets were elected Democrats, according to police. The investigation remains ongoing, Hartsock said, and he wouldn’t specify how many of the suspects have been taken into custody. Albuquerque SWAT officers arrested Peña, 39, on Monday afternoon.

Following the Monday arrest, new details emerged Tuesday about the alleged conspiracy, including how close a spray of bullets came to the sleeping 10-year-old daughter of a state senator. Albuquerque police said in charging documents released Tuesday that Solomon Peña, 39, a Republican who lost a state House seat in November by a nearly 2-1 margin but complained that his defeat was rigged, hatched the plot. Police accused him of conspiring with four accomplices to drive past the officials’ homes and fire at them.

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