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Friday, April 02, 2010
Ranchers Urged To Take Precautions
By Rene Romo
Journal Southern Bureau
DEMING — The shock waves from Saturday's unsolved slaying of a southeast Arizona rancher continued to be felt this week as the Luna County Sheriff's Office told a gathering of 100 ranchers and residents to be alert and take precautions when in remote areas.
Luna County Sheriff Raymond Cobos called Thursday's informational meeting in response to the fatal shooting of 58-year-old Robert Krentz, a Cochise County, Ariz., rancher well-known to New Mexico ranchers in the state's bootheel in southern Hidalgo County. A suspect in the slaying has not been identified, but the Cochise County sheriff's office has said footprints led from the killing scene 20 miles south to the Mexican border.
Krentz's slaying prompted Gov. Bill Richardson on Wednesday to order an undisclosed number of National Guard troops to the bootheel, and members of Congress from New Mexico and Arizona have called for more Border Patrol agents to be stationed closer to the Mexican border.
Deming resident Jerry Bunton supported those plans: "We need a presence on the border to keep these people out."
A list of "safety suggestions for rural residents" distributed Thursday by Cobos at the meeting also urged locals not to overreact.
"Do not allow fear or hate to dictate your decisions," one advisory states. "You should consider everyone a potential threat, but do not take actions into your own hands. While self-defense is a right, murder or vigilantism is a crime and both should be considered prior to any actions."
Cobos said his department's ability to protect residents in far-flung Luna County is limited by the fact that 32 deputies are responsible for an area covering 3,000 square miles. But Cobos agreed with several ranchers in attendance that local governments and private citizens should get behind an effort to extend cell phone service into the bootheel and remote parts of Luna County.
"The more of us that work on it, the harder it will be to ignore us," Cobos said.
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