Families of gun violence victims unite to seek change

Oct. 30—ALBUQUERQUE

The candidates for public office were facing a tough crowd on a recent weeknight — some 20 moms, dads, siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles and friends of loved ones who died by a bullet.

The six candidates — plus one sitting lawmaker from Albuquerque — were appearing before the New Mexico Crusaders for Justice, an advocacy group of more than 800 members statewide who are trying to prevent future gun violence.

The candidates' goals were to lay out plans to address the ever-present crime problem that has taken lives and led lawmakers from both of the state's major political parties to say, "We're going to get tough on crime," — or similar boasts one generally hears during campaign season.

As the five Republicans and two Democrats — all from the Albuquerque area — took their seats at a long table on one side of the community center on University Boulevard, the crusaders exchanged brief greetings with one another. Many had T-shirts, tattoos and pictures displaying their lost loved ones.

When they introduced themselves, the crusaders gave not only their names, but a moment in time — indelibly imprinted in their hearts, souls and minds.

Whether it's Aug. 10, 2020; Feb. 11, 2021; or April 22, 2020, the dates represent the day their loved ones were shot down.

Many said they know lawmakers cannot do anything to return their loved ones to the living. But they fight for justice, for victims' rights, for harsher "tough on crime" measures that will help cut down the chances that someone else's beloved son, daughter, spouse or parent will not die alone on New Mexico's streets.

"Nothing can bring my son back," said Lashanna Villanueva, whose 19-year-old son Isaiah Villanueva was shot to death in Albuquerque in June 2019. What she wants for other parents whose children have been shot dead is justice.

"We're the ones getting the life sentence," she said, clutching a portrait of her son in his military uniform.

Wednesday night's event spotlighted the intersection where politics and pain collide, where lawmakers who say they will do something to ease the grief meet constituents whose grief could fill the world's largest well, and spill over some.

Already, just months ahead of the next 60-day legislative session, lawmakers from both major political parties are vowing this will be the year they tackle crime rates.

Gubernatorial candidate Mark Ronchetti, a Republican, has made crime one of the cornerstones of his campaign as he seeks to win the November election over Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat. Claiming Albuquerque is one of the most violent cities in the country, Ronchetti has asked voters whether they feel any safer today than four years ago, when Lujan Grisham took office.

But the New Mexico Crusaders for Justice say they don't care about the D or the R that stamps a politician's leanings.

Many say they just want the two sides to come together this session to find ways to fight back — imposing tougher, longer penalties for violent offenders, charging juveniles who kill as if they are adults and creating a victim advocacy office in every county to guide survivors through the complex, often heartbreaking labyrinth of the judicial system.

Nicole Chavez, a Republican running for the House District 28 seat currently held by Democrat Pamelya Herndon, said crime remains a prime concern among voters because it "affects everybody."

Chavez, the mother of Jayden Chavez, an Albuquerque teen shot and killed seven years ago in a drive-by shooting, has moved from activist to candidate over the past five or six years. During the Wednesday night presentation, she urged the attendees to "elect people who have gone through it ... who know that our loved ones' lives matter."

Among other proposals, Chavez said she wants funding to create victim advocacy positions. Rep. Miguel Garcia, D-Albuquerque, who has advocated for similar measures in the past, spoke of the pain of living with his godson being killed near Albuquerque's Frontier Restaurant years ago. The police have yet to catch the perpetrator, he said.

He said victim advocates can help people seek justice "in order to not go through what you folks have gone through, which is hell — and back."

Other candidates who spoke at the forum made broad statements about how they would address the crime crisis. Among those ideas: more support for teachers contending with behavioral health challenges among students, increasing funding and staffing for overtaxed law enforcement agencies and doing away with bail reform measures that let judges release suspects before their trial.

As the candidates talked, it became clear what the attendees wanted more than anything was for someone to listen. Some spoke of making frustrating attempts to get lawmakers to pay attention to their pleas during legislative sessions.

Sometimes, the still-mourning attendees spoke more than the prospective politicians, sharing stories of a system that allowed the killers of their loved ones to go free or receive a light sentence. Others nodded their heads in agreement as they listened to those accounts, a silent display of shared torment.

In some cases, they said, it has to be all right to lock the bad guys up and throw away the key.

"Some people should just not be out ... not violent people," Alicia Otero, whose son Elias Otero was shot dead outside his home in February 2021, told the candidates.

Kurstin Johnson, a Republican running for the House District 30 seat held by Democrat Natalie Figueroa, told a moving story of hearing about the murder of a longtime friend — a tale replete with screams of anguish and the sound of police sirens.

A real estate broker by trade, Johnson said she always asks people who are selling their homes where they are moving.

"Anywhere but here," they tell her, adding crime is sending them away — presumably somewhere safer.

Though few solid, fleshed-out proposals were discussed during the meeting, several of the crusaders said they were grateful the candidates showed up and listened to them.

Otero said it's time members of both political parties realized they are from the same "burg" and start working together "and get things to happen instead of fighting each other."

Sally Sanchez, who was driven to co-found the advocacy group in the summer of 2021 — about six months after her son, Antonio Jaramillo, was killed in his home in Albuquerque — said she was pleased with Wednesday's event.

Noting it drew both Republicans and Democrats, she said, "I think that the ones that were there are truly wanting to see some change happen. Especially when it comes to the crime. So I just hope that they keep to their word if they get elected in and recognize that the system needs to be fixed."

But she and others in the group said they have all too often heard politicians, law enforcement officials and others insist they are going to make a difference when it comes to fighting crime.

And then noting happens, they say.

Ryan Saavedra Sr., whose son Ryan Saavedra Jr. was shot and killed in April 2021 in what has been described as a drug-related robbery, said he hopes some of the first-time candidates, if elected, make good on their vows to curb gun violence and save lives.

However, he said he's heard similar promises before, and the results have been disappointing.

Deep down, he said he wonders if some of them aren't just trying to do what people with political ambitions often do — get elected.

Do those candidates really care about what happened to his son or the loved ones from other families who died, he wondered. Or, he said, are they just "people wanting to be in office and just wanting to let you hear what [they] think you're gonna want to hear?"