WASHINGTON, Jan 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A former Republican candidate for New Mexico’s state legislature has been arrested and charged with paying gunmen to shoot up the homes of four Democratic politicians, police said.
Solomon Pena, who lost the race for a House seat in the US state, “is accused of conspiring with, and paying four other men to shoot at the homes” of four Democratic politicians, Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina tweeted.
Pena was in police custody after a brief standoff with a SWAT team at his home in the southwestern part of the city, CBS News reported.
Pena is accused of organizing the shootings, which took place over several weeks and targeted the homes of two county commissioners and two state legislators.
No one was injured in the shootings.
“It is believed that he is the mastermind behind this, and was the one who organized this,” Medina told a news conference Monday evening.
Police said the homes had been targeted by gunfire between Dec 4 and Jan 3.
In the Jan 3 shooting, shots rang out at the home of a Democratic state representative, Linda Lopez, and three bullets pierced her 10-year-old daughter’s bedroom window while she was sleeping.
A police spokesperson, Gilbert Gallegos, said Pena believed he lost last November’s election to an incumbent due to fraud.
“He had complaints about his election he felt being rigged,” Gallegos said, according to NBC News.
Albuquerque police said they expected to file charges against other men who allegedly were paid to carry out the shootings. — NNN-AGENCIES
