TWIN FALLS — One shooting in mid-November was tragic.
Then the next day, a man died by gunfire when he confronted an individual seen in his vehicle.
And now, the Twin Falls Police Department is investigating Friday’s double homicide of two men shot dead at a window-tinting business on Kimberly Road.
The first pair of shootings, three weeks ago, rattled Twin Falls residents when one man was left with minor injuries and 32-year-old Freddy Rodriguez was killed.
Two suspects, Mi’Quavis Taylor and Kaden Thomson, were quickly arrested and are now behind bars in the Ada County Jail.
The murder was the first this year in Twin Falls city limits, but some social media users were unsettled by what they saw as rising crime rates. Other residents began asking the county sheriff for advice on concealed carry.
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Now there are two more deaths when two suspects gunned down Jesse Ortiz, 36, and Jaime Bravo, 26, at Tint Shop V on Kimberly Road.
That was enough to once again set off social media.
“Twin Falls is really falling apart and it breaks my heart,” one post read.
He put on his gloves, pulled down his mask, and readied his gun.
The events were tragic, or in the words of acting Police Chief Matthew Hicks, “heinous.”
Is Twin Falls still a safe place to live?
“Absolutely,” said Twin Falls Sheriff’s Lt. Aaron Koopmans, who invited residents to see what other states are dealing with as far as crime.
“The community in general does feel safe,” Koopman concluded.
He attributed the higher amounts of crime to a growing population, and the number of calls for service the sheriff’s office has received has grown to almost 24,000 last year.
And while some people want to point to newcomers as being the cause of recent high-profile crimes, that is not necessarily the case, as Thomson and Taylor have lived in Idaho for years, having faced minor charges since 2019.
The two went to home during early morning hours to steal man's vehicle, police say.
Twin Falls County Prosecutor Grant Loebs said he is unable to draw a correlation between recent immigration and a spike in crime rates. Using per capita figures can be tricky because Twin Falls’ population grows significantly as people from outlying areas travel to the city to “shop, dine ... or commit crimes,” Loebs said.
According to the annual Crime in Idaho report for 2022, crime in Twin Falls decreased 1.3% when compared to the previous year.
Surveys routinely rank Idaho among the safest states in the nation, although some surveys show that the chance of falling victim to violent crime in Twin Falls is 1 in 196, double the statewide average of 1 in 401, according to national data collector NeighborhoodScout.
When it comes to violent crimes, NeighborhoodScout found Twin Falls to be safer than 21% of cities and neighborhoods nationwide, with a crime rate of 5.09 per 1,000 residents.
In a city-sanctioned survey in 2022 which collected responses from residents, 48% percent of residents felt a “good” overall feeling of safety, while 19% rated it as excellent. Twenty-five percent rated it “fair” and 8% “poor.”
Those numbers declined from 2018, when 78% of respondents ranked the overall feeling of safety either good or excellent, although there was only a slight drop in the four years when it came to residents saying they felt protected from property and violent crime, with 70% and 79% respectively saying they felt either very or somewhat safe.
There is a disparity between what law enforcement hears from the community and what they see posted on social media, Koopmans said.
There isn’t as much fear in the community as there is curiosity when a high-profile crime occurs, he said, adding that people often ask him for tidbits of information about crimes that haven’t been reported in the media.
But when a crime involves a homicide, more people ask law officers, including Twin Falls County Sheriff Tom Carter, about carrying concealed weapons.
“The fact that these two incidents were in such close proximity to one another was very concerning for all of us,” Carter said in a Nov. 27 statement, after Taylor and Thomson were arrested.
Carter said it was important to note that in less than 48 hours of the crimes, law enforcement had the suspects in custody, but said he’s received questions about concealed carry. Most of his statement dealt with the complexities of the issue of residents carrying guns.
“There have been many who have thought that perhaps now more than ever they need to start carrying a weapon with them everywhere they go so that they can protect themselves and their loved ones,” he said.
Carter, who described himself as a strong believer in citizens’ constitutional right to carry, recommended that interested people get training, including a concealed weapons class, to learn about the responsibility.
“You will have a better understanding of what you could potentially be faced with in terms of the law, and you better understand what to expect when using a firearm, you will be able to make an informed decision on whether or not that decision to carry is right for you” after firearm training, Carter said.
Idaho allows U.S. citizens over 18 years old to carry concealed weapons without a permit, as long as they are not disqualified from being issued a license to carry concealed weapons under state law.
There are other ways residents can protect themselves from crime.
The Twin Falls Police Department routinely posts reminders on social media about the “9 p.m. Routine.” The practice encourages people at that time to remove valuables, including firearms, from vehicles, close and lock doors on their residences, to turn exterior lights on, and to remember if they “see something, say something.”
The practice is something touted as a way to discourage criminals, who look for easy targets.
“We want to keep reminding them,” Stotts said of the reason for the repeated postings on Facebook.