Solomon Peña, the suspect suspect of orchestrating a plot to target a number of local Democratic officials’ homes and offices with firearms, personally participated in at least one of the more recent shootings, dissatisfied by the aggression his alleged co-conspirators had displayed in a prior episode, according to a criminal complaint in the case. Peña, 39, allegedly began planning the shootings after being soundly defeated in a race for a seat in the New Mexico state House last November. “He had a belief process that he was cheated,” Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina told The New York Times on Tuesday. However, he was displeased with how the gunmen he allegedly paid had executed the first few shootings, wanting them “to be more aggressive” and “aim lower and shoot around 8PM because occupants would more likely not be laying down,” according to the complaint . On Jan. 3, Peña and two gunmen he hired drove to the home of state Sen. Linda Lopez, where at least a dozen rounds struck the house after an AR-15 that Peña was carrying jammed and failed to fire correctly. The next morning, Lopez discovered that “sheetrock dust” generated by a bullet passing through her 10-year-old daughter’s bedroom had sprayed over the girl’s face and bed, investigators found.
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