Doña Ana County sheriff’s deputy arrests man accused of ‘tormenting’ neighbors west of Las Cruces

DOÑA ANA COUNTY, New Mexico - A group of Doña Ana County residents on Sunday morning confronted a man who they say had been chasing and threatening members of their neighborhood for months.

ABC-7 News Operations Manager Tom Scott was recording as frustrated residents near Shalem Colony Trail confronted Joseph Costello. For months, they say Costello had been camping near the river, chasing those who walk by and threatening them.

"He's harassed kids, elderly, he's shot a crossbow through somebody's ATV," said Amado Rivas, who lives in the area.

“He’d come running out of the bushes and yelling and screaming at us and telling us he was going to kill us," said Leland Harrison.

Rivas and other neighbors say they have made multiple calls to report the alleged harassment to the Doña Ana County Sheriff's Office, but complain that minimal action was taken.

Sheriff's deputies responded to the scene and arrested Costello on Sunday. He was charged with criminal trespassing and was booked into the Doña Ana County Detention Center.

"We can only do so much," said Sheriff Kim Stewart. She told ABC-7 that deputies had arrested him multiple times, but that he always was released from jail. On Sunday, she said he was released three hours later on no bond.

"It's a revolving door situation," she said. "We drop them off at the front door of the detention center and they leave out the back door.”

"He’s just a menace to society," Rivas said.