Las Cruces police chief sounds alarm on juvenile crime

LAS CRUCES — After a string of text messages with his girlfriend that escalated from jealousy to death threats, a 15-year-old boy set words aside and sent her a visual message by walking up to her front door and pointing a handgun straight at the doorbell camera, a mobile phone in his other hand.

That took place some time after the same boy allegedly shot another teenager in a city park five times, permanently paralyzing his victim. He later posted about it on social media.

On Tuesday night, Las Cruces Police Chief Jeremy Story shared that and other stories, presenting a sobering picture in which some of the city’s youth are increasingly enmeshed in patterns of violent crimes and homicides, with social media serving as a marketplace for firearms and a studio from which dangerous behavior is broadcast to garner applause, spread fear and promote mayhem.

In a video posted to the Las Cruces Police Department’s social media channels, Story presented statistics on juvenile crime in the city as well as a collage of social media videos and posts, as well as transcriptions of phone calls placed from the county jail, to paint a picture of some city youth, from an early age, falling through family and institutional gaps into a dead-end culture where firearms, violence and intersections with gang life play out in front of cameras.

Since 2020, according to LCPD statistics, 17 juveniles have been charged with murder or manslaughter. In the same five years, 128 minors were charged for aggravated assault or battery and 217 with weapons violations.

Story’s presentation, which concealed the identities of minors, indicated that officers were becoming acquainted with children as young as 10 exhibiting dangerous behavior and coming into contact with drugs and guns. Felonies currently account for 41% of juvenile charges, Story said.

Guns, including high-powered rifles and handguns with “Glock switches” that allow for continuous fire, have become such familiar accessories at social gatherings, Story said, “that nobody even reacts to them.” Social media posts routinely document individuals recklessly firing weapons in neighborhoods or at electric power substations, or aiming laser sights at people. One video shared by Story depicted a teenage boy firing a rifle from the window of a car while he was driving.

Other posts he shared mocked criminal penalties, probation procedures and the ease with which defendants can be ruled incompetent to stand trial, ending in the dismissal of their cases. Story said repeat juvenile defendants often evade accountability until they are charged under the federal justice system, where they may face long prison sentences without parole.

Story’s presentation came at the end of a year which saw numerous shootings in public places claiming the lives of teenagers and young adults. In March, a mass shooting at Young Park killed three teenagers — one adult and three minors are awaiting trials on murder and conspiracy charges. An apparent robbery attempt in September led to a shootout in another city park that killed 19-year-old Julia Clark. A 17-year-old is facing murder and aggravated assault charges over a shooting at a house party in November.  And half a dozen teenagers have been arrested and charged over a burglary at a shooting range in which stolen vehicles were used to break into the business and get away. 

The video went live exactly three weeks before the Jan. 20 opening of a 30-day legislative session in Santa Fe during which lawmakers are expected to address crime and public safety.

Story attributed juvenile crime trends, in part, to insufficient local mentorship programs and youth activities, lax accountability through state courts and inadequate rehabilitation services.

“We are not altering their course,” Story said. “Clearly, we see that — crime after crime, arrest after arrest. Altering them from their course means actually providing services and programs, and holding them accountable to them.”

Story has been an advocate for reforming statutes and court rules governing competency, pretrial detention and juvenile crimes, but in Tuesday’s video he focused his message on the idea that the system was failing youth and more needed to be done to divert young people before they fall into the court system.

“Citizens have to advocate for us to do better both on the accountability side and the rehabilitation side,” he said, while emphasizing a need to divert youth before they commit crimes.

Kat Sánchez, policy director for Bold Futures — part of a coalition of organizations addressing community welfare and safety — said the truth of the matter goes deeper and needs to be considered by lawmakers this month.

“Not only are we failing our kids,” she said, “we are failing our families. When you step back, you’re asking questions like: Why do parents need to work so hard, and spend so much of their day at work and not with family? … We are focused on (parents’) absence but not the causes of absence.”

Pressures on families, including single-parent households, routinely involve policies outside the legal system, such as reductions in housing and nutritional assistance and Medicaid benefits.

“Part of (crime) prevention,” Sánchez said, “is ensuring that families have the resources that they need. … Extra penalties don’t make us safer. We can’t arrest or prosecute or incarcerate ourselves into people being safe.”

Yet Sánchez said the coalition concurred with Story’s emphasis on early prevention and diversion. She also acknowledged that resources for healthy and functional families would take time before changing conditions reported by the LCPD.

“I know that doesn’t, from a police chief’s point of view, that doesn’t do anything toward statistics right now; and I know that he’s having to deal with issues happening right now,” Sánchez said. “What can we do together to help address some of these things? Children are our future; we need to make sure that we set them up for success.”

Algernon D'Ammassa is the Journal's southern New Mexico correspondent. He can be reached at adammassa@abqjournal.com.