Same Las Cruces Family Targeted Six Different Times

LAS CRUCES, New Mexico – Six drive-by shootings, within the course of a year, and the same East Las Cruces home targeted with every bullet. It’s a series of events believed to be connected with the death of 21-year-old Jacob Gutierrez.

ABC-7 visited with the family, living each day in fear, whose home has been repeatedly targeted. It was difficult for them to even speak about this, and they refrained from going on-camera, but they said this past weekend was shattered with gunfire.

The family says there’s at least nine fresh bullet holes from this past weekend. “It was miraculous that nobody was hit,” says Bo Nevarez from the Dona Ana County Sheriff’s Office.

Investigators say there’s been no fewer than six separate shootings, with two more this weekend alone.

The family is suffering because investigators say a former rival gang member used to live here, but has since moved.

The violence is believed to be connected with the unsolved April 2009 death of 21-year-old Jacob Gutierrez. Nevarez says it’ll be a matter of time before an innocent person is hit by a stray bullet.

According to the family, nights are the scariest, and it’s impossible to describe what it’s like to awaken to the sound of gunfire in your own home.

Nevarez says “it was an act of God” that the children weren’t hurt by the bullets.

Investigators say it’s not if but when they catch whoever is responsible for these shootings. As for the investigation into the death of Gutierrez, officials with the Las Cruces Police Department say they’re still waiting for more information from the medical examiner’s office.

Anyone with information on either of these two cases is asked to contact the Las Cruces Police Department or the Dona Ana County Sheriff’s Office.