Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the "shrine to environmental justice and climate change" has been permanently shuttered, Breitbart reported. Zeldin made this announcement in a video posted to X, formerly Twitter, on Monday.
President Donald Trump's EPA head has followed the lead of the Department of Government Efficiency to begin streamlining the agency. One of the many things he chose to cut was the EPA "shrine" created by President Joe Biden's administration.
"If you were to visit the museum located here at EPA headquarters in D.C., you would learn a lot about the road to environmental justice and climate change," Zeldin said. He noted the $4 million price tag and $600,000 in operating costs despite low numbers of visitors.
The Biden Admin spent $4M in tax dollars on a museum to tell a selective story of @EPA history. It costs $600K per year to operate even though only 1,909 external visitors came through in the last 9 months. Today we are closing it. pic.twitter.com/ghTQ2MQX4N
— Lee Zeldin (@epaleezeldin) March 31, 2025
In the video, Zeldin shared the details of this vanity project by the previous administration that also left out anything about gains during Trump's first term. "This museum claims EPA pursues its mission by advancing environmental justice, equity, and civil rights compliance," Zeldin noted.
"A timeline of key events conveniently omits any mention of President Trump’s first administration," he added. It also comes at an exorbitant cost to taxpayers. "This agency has been spending $123,000 on cleaning, $207,000 for security, $54,000 on maintenance, and an additional $54,000 on storage," Zeldin went on.
This cost was incurred as the museum only brought in 1,909 visitors in the period between May 2024 and February 2025. "Even though it is free admission, this museum costs you, the taxpayer, $315 per external visitor," Zeldin continued.
"I have pledged to be an exceptional steward of taxpayer dollars, so this shrine to EJ [environmental justice] and climate change will now be shut down for good. I will do my part to help the American people learn more about the amazing work of our agency to provide cleaner, healthier, and safer land, air, and water," he added.
"We will do so without paying over half a million in tax dollars on a museum that is barely visited and designed to tell an ideologically slanted partial story of the EPA," Zeldin pledged. He further promised that this would do his job without "burning tax dollars on pet projects that do nothing to help this agency achieve our mission of protecting human health and the environment."
Zeldin has already done impressive work streamlining the EPA since his confirmation in January. He is credited with saving almost $2 billion by eliminating "400 DEI and environmental justice grants."
The former congressman also found a $2 billion scheme involving failed Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams. "Stacey Abrams’ Power Forward Communities received $2 BILLION to be a pass through entity for Biden EPA’s $20 billion ‘gold bar’ scheme. They reported just $100 in total revenue after their founding in late 2023," Zeldin touted in February.
This comes as Elon Musk's DOGE seeks to cut as much as $4 billion per day from the federal spending budget to overcome a $1 trillion deficit, the New York Post reported. While Democrats claim that these cuts will harm the American people, Musk is confident it will help trim the fat from the government to make it more robust.
"This is a revolution, and I think it might be the biggest revolution in government since the original revolution. America will be solvent. The critical programs that people depend upon will work, and it’s going to be a fantastic future," Musk told Fox News' Bret Baier last week.
These agencies have been burning through taxpayer dollars for decades on the most ridiculous endeavors. It's about time people like Zeldin and Musk take the initiative to cut out expenditures that benefit nobody outside of government.
During a meeting of Democrat lawmakers in Michigan, Rep. Debby Ringell (D) openly admitted that her party was using underhanded tactics to thwart President Donald Trump's agenda.
The Washtenaw County Democratic Party meeting, titled “Democratic Responses to Trump’s Attacks & Lessons Learned from 2024 MI House Races,” was posted online to showcase the plans made there.
Their plans didn't turn out exactly how they wanted, however, and Ringell had to try to shut down a young Black voter who applauded Trump for appointing Alice Marie Johnson as pardon czar, which he considered a meaningful step toward criminal justice reform.
“A couple points slash concerns to bring up. I think one thing that’s missing in this conversation,” the man asked Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit.”Trump appointed a new pardon czar. And it’s a Black woman, a real Black. And so I bring that up to bring up the point that the Republicans are kind of moving in on what is traditionally like a progressive concept, right? You know, giving people back there for very different reasons though, right? He’s trying to take care of the people that take care of him, whereas I don’t see very strong Democrat messaging on this point at all.”
Following the comment, a man tried to take the speaker's microphone, but the audience showed its disapproval to that plan.
Dingell then let the Democrat plan slip, or at least part of it.
“We need to make sure it’s in every one of those damn conservative, wherever they’re communicating, and we have to be the voices that are smart, targeted and effective, and fighting back. And the way we do it. We litigate. We legislate. We only need three votes, three Republican votes. I don’t know that we can ever get the person that’s closest to us, but he is chair of Ed and Labor, but we need to be targeting someone that may want to run for governor,” Dingell said.
Not only does Dingell want to see people protest Trump, but she wants her party to use the courts against him (which Democrats are already doing in full force). At the end of her comments, she mumbled, "I hope nobody taped that."
Democrats want to stop all the parts of Trump's agenda, even the ones their own people agree with and want to see.
Trump knows this--he addressed it when he spoke before the joint session of Congress back in February.
This is my fifth such speech to Congress, and, once again, I look at the Democrats in front of me, and I realize there is absolutely nothing I can say to make them happy or to make them stand or smile or applaud," he said. "Nothing I can do. I could find a cure to the most devastating disease — a disease that would wipe out entire nations, or announce the answers to the greatest economy in history or the stoppage of crime to the lowest levels ever recorded, and these people sitting right here will not clap, will not stand, and certainly will not cheer for these astronomical achievements. They won’t do it no matter what."
It has gone beyond political differences at this point--they hate the man himself because he has been able to take away their power and is now dismantling through DOGE and budget cuts their gravy train of billions of dollars funneled to their supporters and patrons.
This is further undercutting their power, so Trump is effectively killing two birds with one stone.
He's saving money that would have been spent by the government and added to the deficit, at the same time he is destroying long-time leftist subsidies that have been within the government even when Republicans were in power and helped them have an unfair advantage in elections.
Even before he assumed the role of secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. was more than clear about the transformation he hoped to see at the agency he now leads.
The strong, sometimes controversial positions Kennedy has taken on issues ranging from food additives to vaccines have caused no end of concern among the D.C. establishment, and they have reportedly now led to the departure of Dr. Peter Marks from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, as Fox News reports.
Fox News cited a report in the Wall Street Journal claiming that due to his disagreement with Kennedy, particularly on matters related to vaccines, Marks, currently serving as director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, was given the option of either resigning from his role or being fired from it.
Specifically, Marks took issue with Kennedy's outspoken positions on vaccine safety, including what he believes are the HHS head's dangerous views.
A resignation letter reportedly submitted by Marks did little to quell rumors of a fundamental – and apparently intractable -- conflict with his new boss.
“It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies,” the letter states.
The resignation of Marks, who served as a key figure in the first Trump administration's COVID-19 vaccine development program known as Operation Warp Speed, will become effective on April 5.
Reacting to the impending departure of Marks from the FDA was Dr. Paul Offit, a noted vaccine expert working at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Offit was clear in his belief that Marks was wrongfully forced out of a job by Kennedy and that his ouster represents a significant loss for the agency, as the Associated Press reports.
“RFK Jr.'s firing of Peter Marks because he wouldn't bend a knee to his misinformation campaign now allows the fox to guard the hen house. It's a sad day for America's children,” Offit lamented.
Also reacting to the news was former FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, who said that Marks' resignation letter itself “should be frightening to anyone committed to the importance of evidence to guide policies and patient decisions.”
Califf continued, “I hope this will intensify the communication across academia, industry and government to bolster the importance of science and evidence.”
Despite his critics, Kennedy is moving full steam ahead on reforming HHS, as The Hill notes, standing in support of the Trump administration's recently announced decision to cut 10,000 jobs at the agency as he works to fulfill the promise to attack America's illness epidemic.
“We're not cutting front-line workers, we're cutting administrators, and we're consolidating the agency to make it more efficient,” Kennedy said on Thursday,” adding that his goal is to “focus the mission so that everybody who is at HHS is going to wake up every morning and say, 'What am I going to do today to Make America Healthy Again,'” and that is a position with which millions can get on board.
President Donald Trump's administration is petitioning the Supreme Court to allow dangerous illegal alien gang members to be deported under the Alien Enemies Act, Breitbart reported. This would allow the administration to rid American cities of hundreds of MS-13 and Tren de Aragua gang members.
Trump already designated the gangs, which originated in South America, as terrorist organizations. Now his administration wants to take it a step further to get these savage criminals out of the U.S.
The president has been forced to ask the high court to intervene after a lower court issued an injunction against deporting these deranged criminals. Judge James Boasberg imposed a temporary restraining order on the administration.
NEW: Trump adm asks SCOTUS to vacate Boasberg’s orders related to Alien Enemies Act. DC appellate court on Wednesday denied Trump’s request to lift the orders. pic.twitter.com/G9J2l7KEaB
— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) March 28, 2025
Deporting people who are in the country illegally and part of a dangerous street gang is a service to American citizens. However, leftists simply couldn't bear it when the administration organized two deportation flights headed for a prison in El Salvador, and the judge agreed to stop it.
The Trump administration asked for an immediate stay on this decision in its filing Friday. "At a minimum, the Acting Solicitor General respectfully requests that this Court grant an administrative stay while it considers the government’s submission," the filing noted.
"The district court’s flawed orders threaten the government’s sensitive negotiations with foreign powers. And as long as the orders remain in force, the United States is unable to rely on the Proclamation to remove dangerous affiliates with a foreign terrorist organization—even if the United States receives indications that particular TdA members are about to take destabilizing or infiltrating actions," it went on.
"And the court’s orders are likely to be extended by another two weeks, based on respondents’ recent submissions to the district court. In these circumstances, an administrative stay is warranted while this Court assesses the government’s entitlement to vacatur," the court document added.
"This Court should vacate the district court’s orders. In addition, the Acting Solicitor General respectfully requests an immediate administrative stay of the district court’s orders pending the Court’s consideration of this application," it said.
It's difficult to argue against deporting people who are actively harmful to American citizens. Yet leftists have done just that, including Appeals Court Judge Patricia Millett.
When the Trump administration attempted to overturn Boasberg's injunction, Millet chastised Trump for the way he treated gang members, the New York Post reported. "There were planeloads of people," Millet said.
There were no procedures in place to notify people," Millet told Trump's attorneys. Nazis got better treatment under the Alien Enemies Act than has happened here," Millet claimed.
Meanwhile, Trump is facing similar opposition for just about every facet of his agenda, and often, it is judges appointed by Democrats who are doing the bidding of his opponents. It doesn't matter how this impacts everyday Americans as long as they can thwart the Trump agenda.
Illegal immigrants need to be deported, but those who are part of dangerous gangs need to be removed from the U.S. at once. Trump is trying to do this to protect Americans, but the left is too concerned with stopping him from doing the right thing.
A former Freddie Mac employee was taken into custody after making bomb threats on social media against the government-sponsored enterprise, Breitbart reported. Maria Del Carmen Lopez Lozano allegedly said in a series of posts threatening the McLean, Virginia, headquarters and its employees.
Fairfax County Police arrested Lopez Lozanno, who worked in the company's tech department, on Wednesday following threats she made online. Although authorities haven't released the posts, an unnamed source close to the matter said the 38-year-old claimed she would "blow everything up in Freddie Mac right now so they know this is real and not fake," the source claimed.
"Give me a few more minutes and I will blow up this mother ****** building at Freddie Mac so people know that this is real and not fake," Lopez Lozanno is said to have added. She also allegedly made threats to President Donald Trump-appointed U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte.
SCOOP!
Former Freddie Mac Employee Arrested for Alleged Bomb Threat Against Trump Appointee https://t.co/LbHsVMrIG2 via @BreitbartNews
— John Carney (@carney) March 27, 2025
The threats began after Lopez Lozano reportedly went live on Facebook while driving to the mortgage company's HQ1 building. She broadcasted herself going onto company grounds by pretending to be a senior executive.
She then lied about Pulte restoring her employment and giving her a promotion. Because of these antics, police arrested Lopez Lozano and charged her with trespassing and making a bomb threat.
Shockingly, police released her on Thursday morning, and a source close to the matter said she immediately resumed her online behavior. Freddie Mac and FHFAD, the agency overseeing the company, wouldn't confirm anything about the case, however.
It's not known why Lopez Lozanno made such threats as police have kept mum on the case. There has been turnover at the mortgage company, including the exit of Freddie Mac CEO Diana Reid board members who resigned from the affiliated financing company, Fannie Mae.
Notably, Pulte has cut some 200 employees, according to the UK Daily Mail, but it doesn't appear Lopez Lozano was one of them. Instead, she ranted that "Freddie Mac as an investor has hacked the brain using Artificial Intelligence, and they did it with the help of Maria Del Carmen Lozano."
There's something about the Department of Government Efficiency's efforts to streamline the government that has triggered unhinged attacks. Many of them are directed at the leader of the effort, Tesla billionaire Elon Musk, or rather, the cars that he makes.
There's been an epidemic of attacks on Teslas and dealerships simply because of what Musk is trying to do with streamlining the government and rooting out fraud and waste, Fox News reported.
"The real problem is not the people. It's not like the crazy guy that firebombs a Tesla dealership," Musk told Fox News’ Bret Baier on "Special Report" Thursday.
"It's the people pushing the propaganda that cause that guy to do it. Those are the real villains here," Musk charged.
It's still unclear what motivated Lopez Lozanno, but it comes at a time when these unhinged attacks are happening because people are upset about Trump's agenda. It's time for disgruntled Americans to act with civility and not like criminals.
Second lady Usha Vance's trip to Greenland hit a snag after a local travel company refused to work with her, Newsmax reported. Tupilak Travel's move is part of a broader rejection of President Donald Trump's overtures toward a possible acquisition of the large island nation.
Plans were initially accepted by the tour company for Usha Vance's visit. However, a Facebook post on Tuesday, which was translated into English from the native Greenlandic language, explained the decision.
"Yesterday, we were approached by the U.S. consulate to see if Usha Vance, the wife of the vice president of the United States, would like to visit our store on Friday; we agreed, as almost anyone is welcome. After careful consideration, we have decided not to accept the request, as it is not appropriate to interfere with events and media followers," Tupilak Travel wrote Tuesday.
According to Newsweek, which broke the story about the company's rejection, the wife of Vice President J.D. Vance was set to accompany her husband on the visit. They were slated to tour Greenland's historic sites and take in the dogsled race known as the Avannaata Qimussersu.
Earlier this week, Usha Vance said on Instagram that she was excited to be attending Greenland during this event. "I've been reading all about it with my children, and I'm amazed by the incredible skill and teamwork that it takes to participate in this race," she wrote Tuesday.
Also expected to visit Greenland were Trump's Energy Secretary Chris Wright and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz. However, a White House news release Tuesday failed to mention Wright and Waltz being part of the visit.
It also indicated that the Vances will be touring Greenland's Pituffik Space Base, which appears to be a change of earlier plans as well. There could be several reasons for the change, but a representative from Tupalik Travel blamed Trump, which likely has him fuming behind the scenes.
"We are known for our hospitality, and we welcome visitors from other countries as our valued guests. With this delegation, however, we were afraid that it would turn out to be a MAGA event [which] we did not want to be part of," the tour company's manager Henrik Skydsbjerg said.
Regardless of the current state of relations with Greenland, the White House recognizes that it's a key territory in securing the globe. "The strategic partnership between the United States and Greenland has long played a vital role in our national and economic security," a White House news release said.
"During World War Two, the United States established over a dozen military bases in Greenland to defend the North Atlantic from Nazi incursion. During the Cold War, the United States committed additional resources to Greenland to defend against Soviet missile attacks," it added.
"In the decades since, neglect and inaction from Danish leaders and past U.S. administrations have presented our adversaries with the opportunity to advance their own priorities in Greenland and the Arctic. President Trump is rightly changing course," the news release noted.
Trump has indicated he will not give up easily on what he thinks is an essential acquisition. "We need Greenland. And the world needs us to have Greenland, including Denmark. Denmark has to have us have Greenland. And, you know, we’ll see what happens. But if we don’t have Greenland, we can’t have great international security," he told reporters, according to The Hill.
Leftists at home and abroad have an outsized opposition to Trump, his administration, and his agenda. Some in Greenland may try to keep the U.S. at arm's length, but Trump is not about to give up on this plan.
Michelle Obama said that the thought of her running for president is "unthinkable," The Hill reported. The former first lady's name has been bandied about by Democrats desperate to counter President Donald Trump.
Obama appeared last week on the Not Gonna Lie podcast hosted by Kylie Kelce, wife of retired NFL player Jason Kelce. She directly addressed the issue of whether she would consider a presidential run. "When people ask me, would I ever run? The answer is no," Obama told Kelce.
"If you ask me that, then you have absolutely no idea the sacrifice that your kids make when your parents are in that role. It would be unthinkable," Obama later concluded.
Democrats have been clamoring for a popular figure to coalesce behind, and the best they could come up with was former President Barack Obama's wife. During the 2024 election, polling showed Michelle Obama was the only figure strong enough to beat Trump.
This came after then-President Joe Biden was on the verge of stepping down from his reelection bid, leaving the inept Vice President Kamala Harris to take his place. While rumors abounded about her possibly stepping into the role, Michelle Obama never did.
She is qualified based on how staunchly anti-Trump she is, so much so that she railed against him in a speech at the Democratic National Convention. "For years, Donald Trump did everything in his power to try to make people fear us," Michelle Obama claimed.
"See, his limited, narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hardworking, highly educated, successful people who happen to be Black," she added at the August event. Michelle Obama later declined to attend the inauguration in November.
While the former first lady's name continues to come up for Democrats' political hopes, Michelle Obama made it clear that she will not be swayed based on her concern for her daughters, Sasha and Malia.
Democrats who pushed for Michelle Obama to join the presidential race seem to forget how polarizing she was right out of the gate. First ladies are often more popular than their husbands and rarely ruffle feathers.
Michelle Obama certainly bucked that trend. In the runup to her husband's 2008 election, she insinuated that she wasn't proud of America until Democrats began supporting her husband's presidential bid.
“For the first time in my adult lifetime, I’m really proud of my country … not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change. I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction and just not feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment," Michelle Obama said, according to a February 2008 Fox News report.
Although they tried to back peddle, the damage was done to the Obamas' image with that comment. Barack Obama still got elected, but ever since, it has been a tough road with Republicans and certainly would preclude Michelle Obama from becoming a presidential candidate.
Michelle Obama is not wrong that it should be a tremendous disruption for their kids, although they are both grown now. Still, it wouldn't be a shock if she changed her mind just in time to run in 2028.
A book by climate alarmist Al Gore was spotted on a bookshelf in the background of a video Usha Vance, wife of Vice President J.D. Vance, posted ot Instagram, the UK Daily Mail reported. The Second Lady was speaking about an upcoming trip to Greenland when eagle-eyed viewers noticed the controversial reading material.
The 1992 book Earth in the Balance, penned by the former vice president, was noticeably placed behind Usha Vance as she spoke about the trip. The Second Lady didn't mention anything about the book she perhaps unknowingly had on the shelf as she eagerly shared news about the trip.
Usha Vance noted she'd be visiting during the nation's famed dogsled races. "I’m also coming to celebrate the long history of mutual respect and cooperation between our two nations and to express hope that our relationship will only grow stronger in the coming years," the second lady said.
View this post on Instagram
The radical climate agenda is extremely unpopular among conservatives, as is the movement's godfather, Al Gore. He's known for making outlandish predictions that don't come true while jetsetting on carbon-spewing private planes to continue with the rhetoric.
As with his other work, the book spotted behind Usha Vance was filled with hyperbolic language that would be laughable if not for the fact that some took it as a serious call to action. When called out on it years later, Gore doubled down with the craziest metaphor of all, according to a Fox News report from 2007.
"The planet has a fever. If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor," he told then-Rep. Joe Barton(R-TX). "If the doctor says you need to intervene here, you don't say 'I read a science fiction novel that says it's not a problem.' You take action," Gore added.
Gore peppered his climate alarmist screed with all kinds of silliness, but he went a step further with a strawman attack on Michael Crichton's State of Fear novel. The popular author, who has since passed away, illustrated the climate hysteria by using Gore-like activists as the villains in his 2004 fiction.
People who see that the second lady has Gore's book are inclined to conclude that she believes the drivel he's been spewing for decades, but there's no indication one way or the other. Notably, she was a registered Democrat until 2014, when she married J.D. Vance.
While some may be focusing on old books Usha Vance keeps on her shelf, the vice president had his eye on Greenland's strategic location. President Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed a desire to acquire the island nation, which surely plays into J.D. Vance's visit.
As Reuters reported, the vice president posted about his intentions for the visit. "Looking forward to visiting Greenland on Friday," J.D. Vance captioned a video accompanying the post.
"A lot of other countries have threatened Greenland, have threatened to use its territories and its waterways to threaten the United States, to threaten Canada, and of course, to threaten the people of Greenland. So we are going to check out how things are going there," the vice president said in the video.
"Unfortunately, leaders in both America and in Denmark, I think, ignored Greenland for far too long," J.D. Vance added. Greenland is located between the U.S. and Europe and could serve as a staging ground for counterattacks from places like Russia and China.
Usha Vance has not made her opinions known, but it's irrelevant. The American people elected Trump and J.D. Vance, and they trust that they will carry out the conservative agenda just as promised. So far, they have done just that, independent of their wives' reading preferences.
Former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Jessica Aber was found dead in her home at age 43 on Saturday, according to the Alexandria Police Department.
APD Statement regarding Beverley Drive Death Investigation pic.twitter.com/86iNsUzQyO
— Alexandria Police (@AlexandriaVAPD) March 22, 2025
Officers responded to Aber's location at 9:18 a.m. after reports of an unresponsive woman and found Aber's deceased body, the statement said.
They are investigating the death according to their usual protocols for these situations.
"The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of Virginia will determine the cause and manner of death," the statement concluded.
Aber was appointed by former President Joe Biden to the position in 2021 and confirmed unanimously by the Senate.
She served in the position until her resignation in 2025 to allow President Donald Trump to appoint a successor.
While in the position, she proescuted MS-13 gang members and Russians accused of war crimes against Ukraine.
According to a source close to Aber, however, she had a long-term chronic health condition and police do not think the death is suspicious at this time.
The current U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Erik S. Siebert, said Aber was “unmatched as a leader, mentor, and prosecutor, and she is simply irreplaceable as a human being.”
“We remain in awe of how much she accomplished in her all too brief time in this world. Her professionalism, grace, and legal acumen set the standard. Though we are devastated by this loss, each of us in the Eastern District of Virginia will look to her example and endeavor to live up to that standard,” he added.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi also expressed sorrow over Aber's death.
“The loss of Jessica Aber, former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, is deeply tragic,” she wrote.
“Our hearts and prayers go out to her family and friends during this profoundly difficult time,” she added.
A harrowing scene unfolded in a Las Cruces, New Mexico park late Friday evening, as gunshots rang out at what authorities described as an unauthorized car show.
According to the Associated Press, the mass shooting incident at Young Park left three dead and 15 injured, with victims ranging in age from 16 to 36.
Reporting from the Daily Mail indicates that the violence erupted between two groups of attendees at the unsanctioned event, who were said to have had existing tensions.
Heated words among those involved escalated into gunfire, with at least 50-60 shots fired, based on forensic evidence recovered at the scene.
Upwards of 200 individuals could be seen fleeing from the shooters, seeking cover anywhere they could, though ultimately, three were fatally wounded and 15 others sustained wounds of one degree or another.
Authorities later reported that those killed included a 16-year-old boy and two adult males, aged 18 and 18, respectively.
Though identities of the deceased victims were not immediately released, it has since been revealed that the youngest of those killed in the melee was Andrew “AJ” Madrid, a sophomore baseball player on the Centennial High School junior varsity squad, as the Las Cruces Sun News reported.
Las Cruces Police Chief Jeremy Story discussed the dangers of the sort of unauthorized car show gatherings that took place on Friday and their conduciveness to violent encounters.
“What tends to occur, is a lot of illegal behavior with the vehicles, there were firearms throughout the event that were used and people with firearms out willy nilly,” Story noted.
Suggesting that staffing issues may have exacerbated the severity of the outcome on Friday, Story added, “I had no units available for most of the night prior to the shooting, logistically, I got what I got, I wish it would have been different, but it wasn't for a lack of trying.”
Story was resolute in his quest for answers in the case, however, declaring, “This horrendous, senseless act is a stark reminder of the blatant disregard people in New Mexico have for the rule of law and order,” adding that with regard to the perpetrators, “We will hold them accountable to the criminal justice system.”
Las Cruces Mayor Pro Tem Johana Bencomo weighed in as well, stating, “This was a heinous act of violence that will leave our city mourning. As with all acts of gun violence in our city, my heart is broken for the victims and families impacted.”
KFOX 14 reported on Sunday that one adult and one juvenile had been arrested by Las Cruces police for their suspected involvement in Friday's shooting.
Tomas Rivas, 20, and an unnamed 17-year-old boy are now in custody and have been charged with three counts of open murder with more potential charges pending, and hopefully their apprehension will lead to the justice and accountability the victims in this case deserve.