PUBLIC SAFETY
NM gun intelligence center links firearms to 527 crimes across state
Since its December launch, the Crime Gun Intelligence Center has led to arrests in 41% of case leads
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Law enforcement has used forensic technology to connect 527 crimes, including fatal shootings, across the state since the December launch of the New Mexico Department of Justice鈥檚 Crime Gun Intelligence Center.
At a Thursday news conference in Gallup, Attorney General Ra煤l Torrez said about half of all firearms collected by the Crime Gun Intelligence Center have been used in crimes in different counties or cities across the state.
鈥�We had an intuition, a sense that most or many of the crime guns that we were encountering in our communities weren't staying in one community,鈥� Torrez said. 鈥淭hey were actually moving and being used in crimes in Albuquerque and Gallup and Farmington and Roswell and different places.鈥�
The CGIC uses ballistic evidence to identify firearms used in crimes across New Mexico, with four National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) machines in Farmington, Gallup, Roswell and Las Cruces.
Torrez said he hopes to eventually have full coverage in the state, particularly in San Miguel County, where law enforcement travels the farthest to have firearms analyzed.
At least three more machines are needed to accomplish that goal, he said.
The attorney general added that the Department of Public Safety has machines, but they are not fully integrated into the network due to 鈥渁 policy decision鈥� that he hopes will change with the next administration.
鈥�We first asked for the funding for these machines at the state level, and that request was denied, and so ultimately, we had to go to the federal government to get funding for this program,鈥� Torrez said.
He said he is hopeful that legislators will approve additional funding now that NMDOJ has demonstrated the benefits of the forensic technology.
鈥淥ur office has already received three referrals from guns in our possession connected to crimes in Gallup, Albuquerque and Phoenix, Arizona,鈥� said McKinley County Sheriff James Maiorano III. 鈥�We are hopeful that these leads will bring us to the doorstep of suspects, bringing victims and their families the day in court they deserve.鈥�
As of August, 41% of leads from the intelligence center have led to an arrest, according to Torrez. More than half of the firearms in those cases have been recovered, including one gun that was involved in 17 different crimes.
The attorney general said with more data, the CGIC may be able to find patterns that will identify gun traffickers in the future.
In one of those cases, San Juan County deputies conducted a June traffic stop on 20-year-old Thomas Vigil, who was allegedly firing an AR-15-style rifle along U.S. 64 near Bloomfield, according to a news release from NMDOJ spokesperson Chelsea Pitvorec.
鈥淒eputies lacked probable cause to seize the weapon but collected the shell casings, which NIBIN linked to a ShotSpotter activation in Albuquerque weeks earlier,鈥� she said.
Sometime later, a house party shooting on July 4 in Waterflow west of Farmington left one person dead and another wounded. Suspects fled the scene but bullet casings matched the same rifle from the June traffic stop and the Albuquerque shooting.
Vigil was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and other counts in connection with the incidents.
鈥淪everal unmatched 9 mm casings from the Waterflow scene indicate at least two more firearms from that night have not been recovered; the case remains open,鈥� Pitvorec said.
Nakayla McClelland covers crime and breaking news. Reach her at nmcclelland@abqjournal.com or at 505-823-3857.
