![]() “And I opened the drawer, where his underwear drawer was – where the guns were.”Ī spokesperson with the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department told CNN that deputies did not pursue a red flag order against Wallin in part because he had no known criminal history. “They came into the bedroom and they said, ‘Well where is his stuff?’” she told CNN. He shouldn’t have possession of those guns.”ĭuring the investigation, Salgado said she didn’t just tell deputies about Wallin’s guns, she showed them. “He’s not in his right mind if he’s molesting people. “It infuriates – me the fact that they didn’t lead me to the correct path,” said Salgado, 45, who works as a finance manager at an auto dealership. She doesn’t understand why deputies she called for help didn’t inform her of the law that may have prevented the murders. More than a year after the horrific shooting in the parking lot of Party City, Vanessa Salgado remains haunted by the loss, and tortured by an unending loop of “what if” questions. Vanessa Salgado poses for a portrait at a memorial for her daughter. “It’s not being used in any meaningful way,” said Sheila Lewis, a gun-safety advocate who works with the nonprofit group New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence, referring to the law. That, gun-safety advocates say, is a fraction of what it should be in a state that suffers from one of the highest rates of gun violence and suicide in the nation – leaving some, such as Vanessa, ill-protected against the devastating brutality of firearms. Since its enactment in 2020, New Mexico’s red flag law has been invoked less than 35 times. ![]() Perhaps the starkest example of the unfulfilled promise of red flag laws is New Mexico, where two mass shootings in May left a total of six people dead and 11 wounded. ![]() The double murder-suicide, some officials say, was a tragic missed opportunity to employ the state’s red flag law, which enables authorities to swiftly and temporarily remove guns from the hands of people who pose a danger, and prevents them from purchasing new ones.Ī CNN review of red flag laws identified major obstacles even in states that have embraced them: Resistant law enforcement officers, stickler judges and a general lack of awareness and education have hindered the effectiveness of such gun safety measures that experts say can save lives. Weeks later, on Mother’s Day, Wallin took out his revenge, gunning down Rael and her 16-year-old cousin with his 9 mm outside a party-supply store where the two teens went to buy Vanessa a card and balloons. Stunned, Salgado kicked Bradley Wallin, her partner of a dozen years, out of the house that night. Vanessa Salgado’s nightmare began on what should have been a regular evening in the spring of last year, while she was waiting for her boyfriend to bring back tacos from a fast-food restaurant.īefore he arrived at her house in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Salgado’s 16-year-old daughter, Alexia Rael, came home and, with her out-of-town older sister on the phone, dropped a bombshell accusation: The boyfriend – a 52-year-old bank manager – had molested them both for years. ![]()
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