Someone’s shooting at Democratic politicians’ homes, offices
It’s called the Dark Corner. In the remote foothills of extreme northeast Greenville County, South Carolina, it was a region known for hidden moonshine stills even one hundred years after the Civil War. Occasionally the Dark Corner made the news at 11. Someone would pump a 12-gauge round through a local’s front door and drive off. No one ever seemed to get hurt. Family feuds were still a thing in the Dark Corner.
This is different. And similar. Let’s pray it gets no worse (Associated Press):
Bullets flew through one home’s front door and garage. At another home, three bullets went into the bedroom of a 10-year-old girl in a series of shootings that had at least one thing in common: They all targeted the homes or offices of elected Democratic officials in New Mexico.
Nobody was injured in the shootings that are being investigated by local and federal authorities. Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina said they’re working to determine if the attacks that started in early December and were scattered around the state’s largest city are connected.
The attacks come amid a sharp rise in threats to members of Congress and two years after supporters of then-President Donald Trump attacked the U.S. Capitol and sent lawmakers running for their lives. Local school board members and election workers across the country have also endured harassment, intimidation and threats of violence.
Authorities have identified neither a suspect nor a motive. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent in charge reports that the ATF is anaylzing empty casings to determine if the same weapon was used at each site.
The shootings began Dec. 4 when eight rounds were fired at the home of Bernalillo County Commissioner Adriann Barboa, police said. Seven days later, someone fired more than a dozen shots at former Bernalillo County Commissioner Debbie O’Malley’s home.
Albuquerque police said technology that can detect the sound of gunfire indicated shots fired near New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez’s former campaign office on Dec. 10. Nobody was in the building at the time, and police said they found no damage.
Just this week, multiple shots were fired at the home of state Sen. Linda Lopez — a lead sponsor of a 2021 bill that reversed New Mexico’s ban on most abortion procedures — and the office of state Sen. Moe Maestas. Maestas, an attorney, co-sponsored a bill last year to set new criminal penalties for threatening state and local judges. It didn’t pass.
It wasn’t until Jan. 3 that Albuquerque police Chief Harold Medina opened an investigation into what appears to be a pattern. State officials have scrubbed the Legislature’s website of lawmakers’ phone numbers and work addresses “out of an abundance of caution.” They did so temporarily two years ago after the Jan. 6 insurrection.
NPR:
“We do have some leads,” Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller said. He acknowledged the obvious connection of all the victims belonging to the same party, but warned people not to speculate about the violence while evidence still is being gathered.
“We’re worried and concerned that these are connected and possibly politically motivated or personally motivated,” Keller said. “But we don’t know that for a fact.”
There are always yahoos with guns too cowardly to do more than fire rounds through front doors and drive off. What’s changed are the caliber of the weapons and the character of the feuds. This feud is one-sided. Only one “family” is going to guns.
The Dark Corner has seen gentrification since the 1960s, and the encroachment of golf communities and weekend hikers and cyclists. It’s still plenty dark up there at night.
