Truth or Consequences church evacuated after threat

Police in Truth or Consequences evacuated a church during its Sunday morning service after an unidentified individual called emergency dispatch and threatened to detonate a pipe bomb there.

Police Chief Luis Tavizon told the Journal the church’s security cameras recorded footage of an individual exiting a vehicle in the parking lot and roaming around, appearing to check doors at the back side of the church. It was not yet clear whether that activity was related to the telephoned threat. “We got the license plate, and there is still an investigation on that,” Tavizon said.

Police established a safe perimeter and conducted a sweep of the church after the congregation evacuated, Tavizon said, and were allowed to return after officers cleared the campus.

Tavizon said memories linger in the region of the Aug. 2, 2015, bombing of two Las Cruces churches, when homemade devices exploded 20 minutes apart at the Calvary Baptist Church and Holy Cross Catholic Church. No injuries were reported in those incidents. A suspicious device was subsequently found at Las Cruces’ First Presbyterian Church by a groundskeeper and linked to the two explosions. The case remains unsolved.

In an unrelated case from 2023, Nathan Wallace was convicted for possessing a pipe bomb and ammunition near the playground of East Mesa Baptist Church and sentenced to more than four years in prison.

“With the state of everything, what had happened in Cruces … it’s a little concerning,” Tavizon said. “We wanted to make sure we did our due diligence to figure out what was going on. We’ll be working with our federal partners to trace that plate number and figure out who made that threat.”

In the meantime, he said Truth or Consequences police would conduct extra patrols in the area.

Pastor Caleb Cooper of the New Hope Revival Church posted on social media that police arrived at the church moments after he had led the congregation in a prayer for “a hedge of protection” shielding church sites from acts of terrorism.

“God knows all things,” Cooper wrote in the post, adding that police officers “had us all exit the building and did a wonderful job sweeping the building! No bomb was found and everyone was safe!”

Cooper did not respond to queries from the Journal, but posted video of himself behind the church podium praying, “God … I ask you to place a hedge of protection around us and shield us in the days to come.” Cooper said police arrived minutes later.

The incident prompted a public statement from state Republican Party Chairwoman Amy Barela, who wrote, “Incidents like this are deeply concerning, and they are an important reminder that threats and violence have no place in our communities, our politics, and least of all our churches. No matter our differences, intimidation and fear must never be used as tools to silence or endanger others.”

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