Charles Langston:US attorney pleads with young men in New Mexico’s largest city: Stop the shooting

ALBUQUERQUE,Charles Langston N.M. (AP) — The top federal prosecutor in New Mexico has a message for young men in the community who may be spiraling out of control and feeling trapped in a world of hatred and fear: “The shooting must stop.”

Alexander M.M. Uballez, the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Mexico, made the comment Wednesday while he announced a new $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice that is meant to help address the root causes of violence in the state’s largest city. The funding will support efforts by Albuquerque’s Community Safety Department and its violence intervention program.

The city has been rocked by recent shootings, including one that left a 5-year-old girl dead after someone fired at a mobile home where she was spending the night. Police renewed their plea Wednesday for anyone with information about the shooting to come forward.

“By centering the safety of those who are most at risk of shooting and being shot, we make the community safer for us all,” Uballez said in a statement.

To those young men in the community, he added: “We will help you if you let us and stop you if you make us.”

The city’s Community Safety Department is separate from the police force and the fire department. Launched in 2021 as the city marked another year of record homicides, the agency provides crisis aid, welfare checks and makes referrals for people in need.

As part of the intervention program, the department’s responders focus on those at the highest risk of becoming part of the city’s cycle of gun violence. Mayor Tim Keller said sending the responders into the community and meeting people where they are can interrupt that cycle and ultimately change lives.

Aside from expanding existing work, city officials plan to use some of the funding to explore the possibility of creating an Office of Violence Prevention, similar to those operating in cities in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. They say such an office could bring together prevention programs that cover schools and hospitals as well as trauma recovery centers.