Deputy shoots man, Wing Daddy's closes and we celebrate some outstanding grads

Deputy shoots armed man, sheriff says

The Doña Ana County Sheriff confirmed that one man is dead after he was fatally shot by a deputy during a mental health crisis over the weekend.

Doña Ana County Sherrif Kim Stewart confirmed that a deputy fatally shot Carlos Gamboa, 57, during a brief standoff on Saturday, May 21. Stewart said during a news conference Monday, May 23, that Gamboa, who expressed suicidal ideation to neighbors, fired a shotgun once at a deputy before the deputy returned fire. She said Gamboa succumbed to his injuries at a Las Cruces hospital shortly after deputies shot him.

"I am confident enough right now to say I stand with them and the decisions they make," Stewart said, referring to the deputy that killed Gamboa.

Reporter Justin Garcia, who covers public safety for the Las Cruces Sun-News, attended that news conference and has been following this situation closely, and we've had countless conversations in the newsroom about how we cover police shootings. Justin explains:

Longtime newspaper readers (and God bless those tired souls) will have likely noticed a stark change in how reporters cover police shootings. This change — however incremental it might have been — was never explained or brought to light to the public. Journalists and the media are terrible about this, by the way. For an industry dedicated to demystifying bureaucracy and clarifying complex language, we rarely take the time to explain our own methods. 

So here it is: We can't just take the police at their word. You don't want us to. We don't want to. The police, as individual citizens in the same public body, also want us to fulfill our societal role and dig deeper — even into their institutions. When a police officer kills a person, that officer most likely considered their actions justified — even if the killing was grotesque. We also know that coworkers tend to cover for their peers. Finally, we know that the person killed, no matter their behavior in life, was a person. They had people who cared about them. They had aspirations. They had dreams and fears and probably didn't want to die. 

When we take those three truths into consideration, we come to a conclusion that it's entirely possible — even plausible in some cases — for a police department to mislead the public about what happened. Moreover, there is no effective police department for the police department. Who else can ask the questions and inquire about the truth if not concerned citizens and the media? Don't we owe it to the human being shot down by an officer (who is entrusted with the state's right to kill) to exhaust all questions? 

In Las Cruces, we've had the unfortunate circumstance of playing witness to two police killings this year. The most recent was that of Carlos Gamboa, who was killed by a deputy after firing a shotgun round at the same deputy. Without using these words, the sheriff was clear about what she believed happened. This was a suicide by cop and, she said, it's an open and shut case. Of course, we as a public hope she's right. We as a public cringe at the possibility that the men and women entrusted with so much power would kill without cause. We (you and I) owe it to Gamboa, to Amelia Baca, and to both police officers involved to exhaust all possible questions about what happened and why. 

Wing Daddy's closes, citing state's unfavorable regulations

The one Wing Daddy’s location in New Mexico closed for good last week and one of the owners told the Sun-News it was because of the difficulty of running a business in the state.

Wing Daddy’s, known for its chicken wings, burgers and ribs, is an El Paso-based franchise with locations across Texas and Mexico. The Las Cruces location, on Telshor Boulevard, was the only franchise in the Land of Enchantment. The last day of operation for the Las Cruces business was May 13.

Ryan McNellis, one of the owners of the company, said the company has been in Las Cruces for almost eight years and had hopes of adding another location or expanding into Albuquerque. However, he said restrictions in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic and changes to state and local laws have made it difficult for the franchise to operate.

Our trending reporter, Leah Romero, spoke with McNellis about the decision to close the eatery:

Wing Daddy's recently announced their decision to close their Las Cruces location for good, spurring on multiple conversations among community members. I reached out to the company and one of the owners of the El Paso-based business, Ryan McNellis, got back to me. He explained that the Las Cruces location was their only restaurant in New Mexico and it had become a liability to continue to operate.

He explained that the cost of operating in New Mexico is much higher than in Texas, particularly when it comes to liquor licenses. New Mexico passed several new laws during the COVID-19 pandemic to make it easier for restaurants to acquire more than a beer and wine license. McNellis said the company felt that this move went against businesses, making them feel unsupported.

McNellis was honest and said he responded to me mainly because he wanted people to know what was going on in New Mexico with what he feels is an anti-business government. Basically, the decision to close went further than the topic of chicken wings.

Celebrating outstanding grads

For every one of this year's graduates across Doña Ana County, there were challenges and successes on their way to crossing that stage. For this cohort, who had to manage two years amid the COVID-19 pandemic, it's been particularly strenuous.

Two LCPS graduating students — Hailey Himelright and Angelita Clark — shared with our (former) education reporter, Miranda Cyr, a little about their winding paths and guiding lights that got them to graduation day.

Three graduating seniors from Hatch Valley High shared with Miranda their big plans for their futures, from acting to the NFL to moving out of state.

And a graduating senior from Santa Teresa High School is set to attend an Ivy League university this fall. Paloma Del Valle, 18, was accepted into three Ivy league schools — Cornell, Yale and Harvard — and said it was a hard choice between them. (Spoiler alert: She chose Havard.)

Miranda told us about meeting these outstanding grads:

This is always such a fun project to work on! I reached out to the three Doña Ana County school districts and asked for a couple of their best grads. All five graduating seniors I talked to were awesome. We had a range of everything from sports to acting to a Harvard geneticist. I was really happy with the diversity of the students I talked with. They each had a really unique story of overcoming the pandemic to make it to their last day of high school. If you haven't read the articles yet, I would highly recommend it — not for my writing but definitely for their perseverance.

Last week marked Miranda's last week with us. In this week's podcast, we talked to her about her time reporting on education during a tumultuous time in education in Las Cruces.

Las Cruces business leaders slam city leaders

Business leaders are organizing a forum this week to address a gap they say the city council created by ignoring the issue of homelessness and property crime citywide.

On Thursday, the Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce, the Las Cruces Association of Realtors and the Las Cruces Home Builders Association will host a forum for business owners to discuss concerns about theft, vandalism, substance abuse and homelessness in Las Cruces. The forum will be held at the Home Builders Association event hall at 2825 N. Main St. from 4 to 6 p.m. June 2, and Mayor Pro Tem Kasandra Gandara is set to attend.

Last week, there was news conference, hosted by local businesswoman Marci Dickerson at The Game, where Dickerson has set up a deer stand — sometimes staffed by an armed security guard — to keep an eye on the restaurant's parking lot.

“(The city council) are putting their head in the sand,” Dickerson said. “They have no aggressive plan. They are not leading us in any way. So we have decided that we'll take it into our own hands.”

Reporters Michael McDevitt and Justin Garcia were there. Michael said:

In reporting this story, crime and courts reporter Justin Garcia and I tried to cut through the pure optics of this news conference and instead tried to engage with the substance of the women’s complaints.

While they reflect a real concern about property crime and homelessness citywide — though it’s debatable whether homelessness has risen and property crime has been about average — I continue to see a misunderstanding about how city government works and the roles the mayor and council can play in alleviating these problems. The council has often said many of these problems are beyond their direct control.

To name one, many aspects of Las Cruces police, such as their pay and the number of officers on the force, are largely out of the council’s control, yet the businesswomen blamed the council for LCPD’s ongoing struggles with shortages.

As perceived thought leaders on this issue though, can the city council do more to direct the conversation by centering discussions around facts and specific, realistic solutions? It’s unclear if they will take that role on more heavily, but people are already looking to them. At an upcoming council meeting, business leaders are expected to speak directly to these elected officials on this same issue during public comment, giving the council a potential chance to engage.

Southwest Counseling Center reopens after state shutdown

In his signature cap, dress shirt and necktie, Roque Garcia welcomed guests to take bottles of water as they found their seats in the beaming sun Thursday morning in Las Cruces.

In front of the downtown headquarters of Southwest Counseling Center, a ribbon-cutting officially marked the reopening of the behavioral services provider one year after the center resumed its work following a hiatus of several years.

Garcia, the center's CEO, used the occasion to celebrate Southwest's return and plans to expand its assistance to the community, while also decrying actions by the state of New Mexico nine years ago that devastated the state's behavioral health network.

In the summer of 2013, New Mexico abruptly cut off Medicaid funding for 15 behavioral health providers statewide, including Southwest, following an audit that found potential overbilling and fraud.

The freeze precipitated a crisis across New Mexico as services were shut down, affecting tens of thousands of residents, while providers sought evidence and retrieved records of claims matching their reimbursements. The crisis drove some providers out of business altogether.

Reporter Algernon D'Ammassa has followed developments closely. He said:

This is a ribbon-cutting story that comes with some history: An act by the state of New Mexico nine years ago that was catastrophic for tens of thousands of people relying on behavioral health services through Medicaid.

Southwest Counseling Center finally reopened a year ago, but the company says it postponed a public event because COVID-19 cases were so high. There was a whiff of election-year politics, given that the crisis occurred under the previous (Republican) governor, as well as lingering pain from those events and the fresh shock of what happened in Uvalde, Texas this week.

Ahead of the event, I interviewed CEO Roque Garcia and summarized the crisis in New Mexico's behavioral health system for a story that shows how Southwest Counseling Center has returned to its old home and is trying to serve more people in need than ever.

On behalf of all of us at the Las Cruces Sun-News, thanks for reading this week's newsletter.

Damien Willis is a Lead Reporter for the Las Cruces Sun-News. He can be reached at 575-541-5443, dwillis@lcsun-news.com or @DamienWillis on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Deputy shoots man, Wing Daddy's closes and we look at outstanding grads