As I posted earlier in the week, on Monday, an attempt by a mostly-white leftwing mob to deface or destroy a statue honoring the first Spanish Governor of New Mexico, Juan de Oñate, that stands in front of the Albuquerque, NM, museum evaporated in a pitter-patter of tiny feet making tracks after part of the mob attempted to murder a man who had intervened to stop the vandalism.

Steven Baca, 31, was involved in an altercation with protesters and when he tried to get out of the area he was assaulted, pursued, and tackled while a crowd screamed threats such as “we’re going to f***ing kill you.” Read my post: Howling Leftwing Mob Tries to Murder a Man in Albuquerque but They Don’t Count on Him Defending Himself.

Despite Baca presenting nearly a textbook case of how to respond to an assault, he was arrested and charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and the Albuquerque Mayor and New Mexico Governor, both far-left politicians who support mob violence, lambasted Baca as the villain.

Yesterday, the District Attorney dropped the most serious charge against Baca and added additional charges, two counts of misdemeanor battery and one count of felony battery in connection to the altercation that took place before Baca was nearly murdered, and one misdemeanor count of carrying a concealed weapon without a permit. The prosecutor was obviously very, very unhappy:

In a letter to Police Chief Michael Geier on Tuesday, Torrez voiced his concerns with the way APD handled the dynamic and volatile situation after the shooting at the protest and how those methods could compromise the investigation.

Specifically, Torrez pointed out that undercover officers who were at the protest and referenced in the complaint would now have to serve as witnesses and would “complicate our presentation” of the case if APD was the investigating agency.

Also, he said, APD’s response to the crowd, with riot police and nonlethal munitions, may have “adversely impacted” the ability to collect evidence and lead to essential witnesses being reluctant to come forward.

“My primary concern is the reluctance of members of the public to cooperate with law enforcement after the confrontation that was had with police,” he said.

Torrez said the concerns are “amplified” by the original complaint as it “seems to omit” the fact that Baca assaulted a woman in the crowd, which could negate any self-defense claim by Baca.

“We believe that this is fundamentally an incomplete police investigation,” Torrez said during the news conference.

In a subsequent letter to Geier, Torrez asked APD to turn over all officer information, lapel videos, 911 calls, written reports and collected evidence.

He said much of the key evidence – knives and “a number of weapons” left at the scene – was collected, but it is unclear where they came from or whom they belonged to. Aside from that, he said, APD tactics used for crowd control “made it impossible” for key witnesses to give statements.

Full letter below:

Letter to Chief Geier Re St… by Albuquerque Journal on Scribd

The issues here are manifest. Apparently, Baca was charged without anyone bothering to look at the videos. The asswipe who was shot, Scott Williams…note to parents, if your son is 39 years old, rides a skateboard, dresses in all black, wears skinny jeans down around his butt crack, and thinks he’s a Bolshevik enforcer, he’s a loser and he’s always going to be one and there is a good chance it is a genetic condition…is now under investigation because in some of the videos he appears to have a knife and there were unaccounted for weapons at the scene, and Williams clearly clobbered Baca with his skateboard and fought with him. Albuquerque police undercover officers, reading between the lines here, in the crowd were not going to help the prosecution’s case at all. So now it has been punted to the New Mexico State Police for investigation.

Odds are that if a hostile DA who is sympathetic to mob rule isn’t pressing serious charges, then it won’t happen. Much has been made of the initial altercation between Baca and some harpies and how he forfeited his right to self-defense by pushing them. I don’t pretend to be a lawyer, even on the internet, but I’d be shocked if the law allows a mob, not involved in an altercation, to attack a single actor en masse. I’d also be shocked if, given the nearly minute that elapsed between Baca attempting to make tracks and the shooting that this could all be interpreted as a single event.

The prosecutor is calling in the New Mexico police because he doesn’t want to be the guy who had to charge a half-dozen protesters with attempted murder while letting Baca go with some misdemeanor charges.