Eight years after the murders of two Indigenous men at a lot on Albuquerque’s westside, the city appears poised to make something meaningful of the site. Bella Davis (Yurok Tribe), Indigenous affairs reporter with New Mexico In Depth, spoke with KUNM about her reporting on what happened there and what’s to come.
BELLA DAVIS: In the early morning of July 19, 2014, Kee Thompson and Allison Gorman, who were members of the Navajo Nation who were experiencing homelessness in Albuquerque, were sleeping in a vacant lot near 60th Street and Central Avenue when three teenagers attacked and killed them. And the murders prompted some changes at City Hall and called attention to the disproportionate rate at which Native Americans experience homelessness both in Albuquerque and statewide.
KUNM: City officials have been talking since 2014 about what to do with the site. What have those years-long discussions looked like until recently?
DAVIS: Discussions really started with two city councilors, one of whom has since passed away, attending a memorial at the site shortly after the murders and proposing that the site be turned into a public space to memorialize the two men. And then, in 2016, Councilor Klarissa Peña, who represents the district directly south of where the murders happened, suggested that the site could be a community space where, you know, maybe local kids could gather. And she also said at the time that the community could help decide what the site would be used for. And really, since then, as far as I can tell, it's kind of faded from the public view.
KUNM: And so, there's still not a memorial on the site. But the city does now own it. You reported that, in 2016, the City Council secured $100,000 to purchase the property with the express intention of building that memorial on it. But after a budget revision, it didn't end up happening until 2019. And now the plan for how that property will be used has changed. What's the city looking to do with it at this point?
DAVIS: So, there's a portable trailer on the property now. And the kind of tentative plan is for a Native-led nonprofit to rent the portable's office space. That nonprofit is the Native American Training Institute, which offers traditional teachings related to wellness and healing to behavioral health workers, law enforcement officials and other professionals. Over the past couple years, there have been a lot of development delays. So, there's not actually a move-in date yet. So, a lot of it is still pretty up in the air. Going back to 2019, Councilor Peña told me that, after the city bought the property, she went to neighborhood meetings. And some nearby residents that she talked with said that they didn't want the site to be turned into a park, which was kind of one idea that was floated around.
KUNM: Why was that?
DAVIS: So, there's actually already a park a few blocks away — Lavaland Park — that the city shut down for a couple of years, because people were sleeping in the park and there was some drug use happening. Counselor Peña told me that some of these residents that she talked with had concerns about having similar issues at a new park. And then, around the same time, the nonprofit approached Peña just kind of wanting to talk with her about the work that they do, and that's kind of how this agreement came to be.
KUNM: And so, is there an idea that moving a nonprofit into that space will prevent it from being a place where people are hanging out and doing the kinds of things that the neighbors are concerned about?
DAVIS: I think that's part of the idea. Councilor Peña told me that after hearing about the work that they do, partly because it is Native-led, she thought that it would be a good fit for the space that would honor the two men who were killed there.
KUNM: Okay. And is there still a chance that a public memorial will be part of the plan?
DAVIS: Yeah. Everyone who's involved with the project says that they want to incorporate a memorial at the site. They also all say that a community process would be really important to determine what that memorial would look like. But there's really not a plan in place yet for how that input would be gathered. A staffer who's kind of been working on the development side of things told me that Native voices absolutely would be centered, but nearby residents and property owners would also be consulted.
KUNM: Okay. For your reporting, you also spoke to Stephanie Plummer, the sister of Kee Thompson, one of the people killed at the site. How does she feel about the city's plan and how it's progressed over the last several years?
DAVIS: More than anything, she is disappointed that it's been as long as it has, and there's not a memorial yet. She told me that she really would have appreciated a tribute of any kind, even if it wasn't at the site itself. She suggested naming a shelter after the two men. And that really stood out to me because no one from the city has reached out to her about any of this. And, you know, ultimately, she just doesn't want her brother Kee and his friend Allison to be forgotten. And, for her, it's also about all people experiencing homelessness in Albuquerque. She wants the city to show that it cares about them and that's partially what a memorial would mean to her.