Free Republic

A failed Republican state legislative candidate who authorities say was angry over losing the election last November and made baseless claims that the election was “rigged” against him was arrested Monday in connection with a series of drive-by shootings targeting the homes of Democratic lawmakers in New Mexico’s largest city.

Mayor Tim Keller’s (D) Albuquerque witnessed 120 homicides in 2022, setting a calamitous new annual record for the city. On December 4, 2022, the Associated Press noted Albuquerque had reached 115 homicides for the year. However, after year’s end, KOAT reported Albuquerque finished up 2022 with 120 homicides. The AP observed 117 homicides were reported in 2021, but three of those were reclassified as self-defense shootings, dropping the number of homicides to 114.

A New Mexico man has been arrested for allegedly trying to establish an ISIS training center in the state. According to a press release from the Department of Justice, Herman Leyvoune Wilson, aka Bilal Mu’Min Abdullah, 45, of Albuquerque, was indicted by a federal grand jury on August 23. Wilson is accused of attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and attempting to obstruct, influence and impede at least one official proceeding. The indictment alleges that from January 23, 2020, to November 20, 2021, Wilson “attempted to establish...

The Left’s view of the world is a series of fictions, fantasies, and delusions. Like all propaganda, this house of cards would collapse in a second if it weren’t constantly shored up with what Leftists claim is “evidence” or “proof” that their insanity — men can be women, Jan. 6 was an insurrection, and the rest — is actually real. And so when four Muslims were shot dead in New Mexico, Old Joe Biden and Kamala Harris rushed to condemn the killings and declare piously that “hate” has no place in America. The “Islamophobia” narrative that Muslims are particular victims...

Diversity is our strength so it couldn’t have been too shocking that an Afghan Muslim refugee was responsible for America’s single worst Islamophobic killing spree. Much as another Afghan, Omar Mateen, brutally carried out the single largest massacre of gay people in America. Americans are generally fairly tolerant so liberals decided to import bigoted immigrant killers. When the migrant surge began, politicians and the media assured us that Afghans would make profound contributions to America. They have already set two particularly ugly national records. And that was bound to happen. Long after the last American soldier had left Afghanistan, the...

The son of the man arrested for the murders of Muslim men in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is now also implicated in one of their deaths. That's according to the Albuquerque Journal, which reports that 21-year-old Shaheen Syed is now in federal custody. Court records obtained by the Journal allege that Syed possibly helped his father surveil Naeem Hussain, who was killed on Aug. 5. Syed's father, Muhammad Atif Syed, has not been charged with Hussain's death. However, police said he is considered a primary suspect. Muhammad Atif Syed is charged with murder in the deaths of two other Muslim men,...

Paraphrasing: Name of man detained for murders is Muhammad Atif Syed. Victims were Muhammad Afzaal Hussain (27) and Aftab Hussein (41). Murder suspect is 51 years of age. There's really not much more to the article, other than that Mr. Syed was driving a Volkswagen Jetta.

The jigsaw puzzle of William Howard Hughes Jr.'s life has many missing pieces. After disappearing into thin air in 1983 he was wanted across the globe by numerous agencies, from the Air Force to the FBI to Interpol. At one point it was thought that he defected to the Russians. Some suggested he sabotaged the disastrous Challenger space shuttle launch. Even after his recent capture, much of this unlikely story remains a mystery for the ages. Here’s what we found out. Born in Seattle in 1950 to a father who worked in the airline industry, Hughes had three sisters. He...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., Aug 9 (Reuters) - A Muslim immigrant from Afghanistan has been arrested as the prime suspect in the serial killings of four Muslim men that rattled the Islamic community of New Mexico's largest city, police said on Tuesday. After days bolstering security around Albuquerque-area mosques, seeking to allay fears of a shooter driven by anti-Muslim hate, police said on Tuesday they had arrested 51-year-old Muhammad Syed, one among the city's Islamic immigrant community.

A man arrested as the prime suspect in the serial killing of four Muslim men in Albuquerque is believed to be a Sunni Muslim himself, it has been reported. Police named the man as 51-year-old Muhammad Syed, who lived in southeast Albuquerque. He emigrated from Afghanistan 'in the last few years', police said on Tuesday, and was twice charged with domestic violence - but charges were dropped. Court records obtained by DailyMail.com show Syed was arrested in May 2018 and charged with 'battery (household member)'. He pleaded not guilty, and prosecutors dropped the charges in August of that year. Four...

Detectives have detained a suspect in a string of killings of Muslim men in Albuquerque. Muhammad Syed, 51, was taken into custody Monday night. Syed is charged in two of the homicides — that of Aftab Hussein on July 26 and Muhammad Afzaal Hussain on Aug. 1. Police say the evidence shows he knew the victims “to some extent” and a conflict may have led to the shootings. They say the gun used in the two homicides was discovered in a search of his home overnight. Albuquerque police had been working with the FBI and local law enforcement after four...

Albuquerque police say they have detained the “primary suspect” in the killings of four Muslim men in New Mexico’s largest city. Police Chief Harold Medina on Tuesday announced the update on Twitter. The killings have sent ripples of fear through Islamic communities in New Mexico and beyond and fueled a race to find who was responsible. “We tracked down the vehicle believed to be involved in a recent murder of a Muslim man in Albuquerque. The driver was detained and he is our primary suspect for the murders,” the tweet said. No other information was immediately available. Police say they...

New Mexico’s ranking in overall child well-being slipped from 49th to 50th, according to the Kids Count Data Book for 2022. “The COVID pandemic caused major challenges for families that blunted the progress New Mexico had been making to improve child well-being,” said Amber Wallin, executive director of New Mexico Voices for Children, which manages the state’s Kids Count program. More importantly, and on a positive note, the data book also shows that New Mexico “has seen consistent improvement over time in most indicators,” she said. Comparing rankings from one year to the next often results in an incomplete picture,...

Over the past nine months, police say, three Muslim men were shot to death — without warning — around the city.And now investigators are saying they believe there is a strong possibility the same person — or persons — is responsible. “While we won’t go into all the specifics of why we think that, there’s one strong commonality in all victims: the race and religion,” said Deputy Cmdr. Kyle Hartsock at a news conference in front of the Islamic Center of New Mexico Thursday morning. “We are taking this very seriously. We want the public’s help in identifying this cowardly...

The Muslim community in Albuquerque is living in fear after a spate of targeted killings against Pakistani and Afghan immigrants. The serial killer is yet to be found but police believe they are responsible for the shooting deaths of four men; Mohammed Ahmadi, 62, Aftab Hussein, 41, Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, 27, and Naeem Hussain, 25. All four men are migrants from either Pakistan or Afghanistan. They were shot in separate night-time incidents in quiet streets and near parking lots. Now, members of the Muslim community are terrified that they may be next. 'It's been very difficult for the community, it...

Albuquerque police said another Muslim man was murdered on Saturday following the murder of three others in New Mexico over the last year as the FBI investigates the possibility of a serial killer on the loose. Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina said the murder of the latest victim, who was not yet identified, is believed to be related to the three fatal shooting that have taken place within a five-mile radius of each other in the last nine months. The newest murder of a Muslim man, which coincided with another shooting in the area, happened just after midnight in the...

A 15-year-old boy died in a house fire after an Albuquerque SWAT team launched tear gas into the home while going after an adult suspect, reported New York Daily News. The police tracked the suspect in question to the home where the boy was and used the gas to draw them out. The boy never made it out. Police were looking for Qiaunt Kelley, 27, who was wanted for violating probation for an armed carjacking and stolen vehicle charge, per the NY Daily News. The report says Kelley fled to a home where 15-year-old Brett Rosenau later walked into. Authorities...

Students should be able to be comfortable in their own skin. They should also be able to express themselves with their clothes, incoming La Cueva High School senior Erica Ho says. But sometimes, students get in trouble for that expression. And more often than not, Ho says, it’s young women who are singled out – often by dress code enforcers who say their goal is to maintain a professional, “distraction-free” environment. “You come to school trying to express yourself, … you come to school trying to learn,” Ho said. “You’re not really thinking about if I’m showing too much skin,...

The Jewish Federation of New Mexico descended into dysfunction over the past 15 months with staff departures, board member resignations, lawsuits and complaints of volatility lodged against its executive director. Now, the organization's executive director, Rob Lennick, says he is moving on — an impending change that some say gives the Albuquerque-based federation a chance to begin anew. Whether that will happen, however, is far from clear because the problems, many say, run deep. Documents from three lawsuits and two investigations, and interviews with people involved show some staffers have complained Lennick was intimidating and, at times, hostile. And some...

In New York City, the nation’s largest school district has lost some 50,000 students over the past two years. In Michigan, enrollment remains more than 50,000 below prepandemic levels from big cities to the rural Upper Peninsula. In the suburbs of Orange County, Calif., where families have moved for generations to be part of the public school system, enrollment slid for the second consecutive year; statewide, more than a quarter-million public school students have dropped from California’s rolls since 2019. And since school funding is tied to enrollment, cities that have lost many students — including Denver, Albuquerque and Oakland...