An 11-year-old boy was shot and killed in a road rage incident as his family was leaving a minor league baseball game, prompting New Mexico’s governor to declare gun violence a public health emergency.
Froylan Villegas and his aunt attended a game game at Albuquerque’s Isotopes Park Wednesday evening, KRQE reported. As the left the park, police say, it appears that the aunt, who was driving, may have cut off another driver. The suspect’s vehicle made a U-turn and followed the victims’ vehicle onto Avenida Cesar Chavez, firing 17 shots into the victim’s car.
Villegas was killed, and his aunt, in her 20s, sufffered “significant injuries” and was said to be in unstable condition.
Police shared photos of the vehicle involved in the shooting, saying it is believed to be a newer model Dodge Durango SRT.
In response to the shooting — and another last month in which a 5-year-old girl was shot and killed while sleeping in her bed — Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an executive order declaring gun violence a public health emergency and freeing up $750,000 to state agencies for the purposes of quickly reducing gun violence. The order also encourages mayors, sheriffs, and other officials to request additional emergency funding from the state as well.
“The time for standard measures has passed,” Lujan Grisham said. ” … I want to know that local officials are giving the epidemic of gun violence the attention it deserves. I want to know that every parent is making sure their guns are locked up. I want to know that district attorneys and judges are using every tool at their disposal to hold bad actors accountable. I want to know that every gun store is not allowing straw purchases. I want to know that every law enforcement agency is using our red flag law.”
“But until that happens in every community in our state, New Mexicans will continue to die,” she said. “We must hold each other to a higher standard for the sake of our children.”
Lujan Grisham also urged Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller “to take every possible action to stem the flow of illegal drugs and guns into your city and stop them from getting into the wrong hands.” She also said she had sent a fourth letter to US Attorney General Merrick Garland asking for “additional federal agents” in the state. The response so far, she said, has been “deafening silence.”
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[Featured image: Suspect car/Albuequerque Police Department and Froylan Villegas/family handout]
