'Not About Religion': The North Valley Mosque Fight Ended With a Gun Outside a Church

Since spring, opponents of the Albuquerque Islamic Center's planned mosque at 9600 Second Street NW have said the same thing. It is about traffic. It is about noise. It is about the rural character of the North Valley.

One North Valley resident told the Albuquerque Journal that for her, "it's not about religion." The man who filed the appeal, Pat Hauser, president of the Maria/Diers Neighborhood Association, told county planners that Islamophobic statements were not the neighbors' agenda.

On Oct. 14, Bernalillo County commissioners voted 4-1 to let the 45,000-square-foot mosque go forward. Commissioner Walt Benson, whose district includes the site, was the only vote for the appeal.

Here is what happened in between.

At the county planning hearing in June, the arguments about traffic gave way to warnings about Sharia law and about polluting future generations, according to the Journal. When the commission agreed to the Islamic Center's request to postpone the vote over safety concerns, people in the chamber started chanting "USA."

Imam Talha Mohamed said the center then received threatening messages and phone calls. The vote was pushed to July 1.

Who sent those threats has never been made public. No arrest has been reported. No police case number appears anywhere in the public record.

On July 1, the Rev. Vincent Paul Chávez, pastor of St. Therese of the Infant Jesus Catholic Church, stood up at the planning commission and spoke for the mosque. He said he would love to see it built next to his own parish. The commission approved the project 5-1 that day.

A local resident, Katrina Griego, recorded his remarks and posted them on Facebook, urging people to call the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and demand that Chávez and his associate priest be removed. According to OSV News, her posts repeated that call through July.

Chávez answered on the parish marquee: "Racism is a grave sin against God's love." Two days later he added her name underneath it: "Katrina G."

Griego came to the church to film the sign. Chávez spoke with her briefly and went inside. The parish facilities director, Timothy Fresquez, asked her to leave. She called her boyfriend, David Romero, 72.

According to the criminal complaint, Fresquez told police Romero took a gun from his vehicle, pointed it at him and at Chávez, and threatened more than once to "kill him or get him." When Chávez stood behind Romero's vehicle to keep him from leaving, the complaint says, the vehicle struck the priest at the waist as it reversed and drove off. Fresquez pepper-sprayed Romero, and the spray also hit Griego.

Romero told police a different story. He said he grabbed his gun but never pointed it at anyone, and that he did not mean to hit Chávez and was only trying to get away.

Romero is charged with two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and is on pretrial release. He has not been convicted of anything. Chávez says authorities told him the FBI may be looking at the case as a hate crime. The FBI has not said so publicly.

In September, Fresquez was charged too: battery, for the pepper spray. Griego has not been charged.

Romero's legal-defense fundraiser says he and Griego have received death threats, some aimed at their families. It also quotes a KOAT interview in which Chávez, asked whether he regretted putting Griego's name on the marquee, said yes, and that the day's events most likely would not have happened otherwise.

A Rio Rancho reader, Corrine Rios, asked in the Journal's opinion pages whether Chávez is a peacemaker or a provocateur. That is a fair question. It does not change who brought the gun.

A name on a church sign is a provocation. A pistol in a church parking lot is a felony charge. Only one of those is in front of a judge.

On July 27, Archbishop John C. Wester issued a statement backing the mosque, saying Muslims have the same right to worship as every other faith and that hostility toward them has no place in a Christian heart.

Jerome Chavez, whose family sold the Islamic Center the land, said publicly that he supports the mosque and that fear of religion is not a zoning issue. His sister, Shannon Chavez Qureshi, said the land belonged to their grandparents, including a Bataan Death March survivor.

The Islamic Center's outreach director, Yahuza Siba, told the Daily Lobo he was not surprised by the violence. The project still needs a traffic study and road work before building permits issue.

For the Albuquerque Police Department and the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office: How many threat reports has the Albuquerque Islamic Center filed since April? Has anyone been identified? Has any case been referred for prosecution?

For the FBI Albuquerque Field Office: Is the July 22 incident under review as a possible hate crime?

For the Bernalillo County District Attorney: What is the status of the cases against David Romero and Timothy Fresquez, and when is the next hearing?

For Pat Hauser and the Maria/Diers Neighborhood Association: Will the association condemn, by name, the threats made against the Islamic Center and against Father Chávez?

Those answers belong in the public record. Right now they are not there.

This story is built from public reporting and records through Oct. 20, 2026: the Albuquerque Journal, Searchlight New Mexico, the Santa Fe New Mexican, KOB 4, KRQE, OSV News, EWTN News and Catholic World Report, the Daily Lobo, nm.news, statements from CAIR and the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, and the public fundraising page for David Romero's defense. The threats against the Albuquerque Islamic Center have not been made public, and this story does not describe their content beyond what the center has said. David Romero and Timothy Fresquez are charged, not convicted, and are presumed innocent. Questions were sent Oct. 20 to the Albuquerque Police Department, the Second Judicial District Attorney's Office and St. Therese parish. The Albuquerque Islamic Center, the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office, the FBI Albuquerque Field Office and the Maria/Diers Neighborhood Association are being contacted. Responses will be added with a dated update. Disclosure: Pesach Lattin also publishes ADOTAT and The Arizona Inquirer and is principal of ANIA, a privately held, independent intelligence firm that is not a government agency; nothing from ANIA work is used in this story. The New Mexico Inquirer is reader-supported. No paid placement in editorial. Tips and corrections: [email protected] or 505-932-9060.