‘I’ll never get her back’: Families hope shooter is brought to justice
Adelina Tafoya liked to sing and had even recorded a song in a studio. She also liked to make short videos and post them to the popular social media app TikTok. For Briana Saiz, her sister, Tafoya was someone she could always count on for a laugh.
“My sister was one of a kind. She really was,” Saiz said. “She lit up the room, she was outgoing and liked to have a good time. And she was always in a good mood. What we call the carrilla. Me and here were always back and forth with the carrilla.”
That laughter was tragically silenced on July 6 when someone shot and killed Tafoya near Storrie Lake State Park. Two other teens — 16-year-old Brianna Leyba, and a 15-year-old boy — were injured in the shooting. Leyba is currently in the hospital in critical, stable condition, but according to her mother Pamela Martinez, if Leyba recovers, it could take months.
Both families want to see the shooter arrested.
“I just want justice,” Martinez said through tears. “I want the person to come out and tell the truth, because whoever did it, they hurt my baby.”
Saiz too wants justice.
“That’s all I want. I’ll never get her back. I’ll never be the same,” she said. “Where it happened, I have to pass through there every day to go to work. It’s awful. This is a nightmare.”
New Mexico State Police are investigating Tafoya’s death as a homicide, but so far have not made any arrests or named any suspects. Lt. Mark Soriano with NMSP told the Optic that investigators are committed to conducting a thorough investigation.
According to Soriano, State Police responded to the entrance of Storrie Lake around 11:45 p.m. July 6 after receiving a report of a shooting. NMSP has not provided a recent update.
Saiz said that the night of the shooting, Tafoya was driving one of her brothers and a friend around when Tafoya stopped at her grandmother’s house to pick up another one of her brothers. He and a girl piled into the Volkswagen hatchback Tafoya was driving, and the five teens went for a ride.
That evening, as they drove north on Seventh Street near the intersection of Legion Drive, a vehicle traveling south on Seventh made a U-turn and began following the VW. Some of the teens in the car told Saiz the other vehicle was being aggressive, following closely and shining its high-beam lights at them.
Near Storrie Lake, Tafoya pulled over to the side of the road and got out of the VW. Saiz said that’s when someone in the other vehicle shot her sister.
Tafoya got back in the car and made one last attempt to protect her family and friends, Saiz said.
“My brothers say she was a hero because all she wanted to do was get them to a safe place,” Saiz said. “She gave it gas one last time, and the way the car was parked, you could see she was trying to get out of there.”
Though the shooter took Tafoya’s laughter and songs from them, Saiz said her sister will always be with them spiritually.
“She’s going to stay living with us, she’ll live through us, and I can already feel it. I know she’s with me. I know it,” Saiz said, her words choppy as she fought back tears. “But as for her physically being here, and talking and laughing and carrilla, that’ll never be here again.”
For now, Saiz finds comfort in watching her sister’s TikTok videos, a digital substitute for the fun-loving girl who was taken from her.
“She liked to sing. And she wanted to rap,” Saiz said with a slight chuckle, her sadness subsiding for a moment. “She started rapping and would make these flows out of nowhere. She had a really good voice.”
Saiz said she wants people to know her sister was a good person, and said the outpouring of support she’s received shows that a lot of people already knew that.
“She impacted everybody. From middle school kids to the elderly, I have people giving their kind words and support,” Saiz said. “She was a beautiful soul inside and out, and I’ll never forget her.”
