SANTA FE, N.M. – It started as a carjacking and ended with a man shot to death.

On Tuesday, Gordon Wilson was in the Best Buy parking lot when a man shot him in broad daylight and drove off in his car.

Police identified the suspect Thursday as 38-year-old Zachary Ryan Babitz from Glendale, California.

Many residents are still shocked this happened, especially because it happened in broad daylight.

A witness, who didn’t want to go on camera, told KOB 4 it came out of nowhere. He took photos, showing Babitz searching the victim’s body.

Then, Babitz took off in the Wilson’s car, a blue 2020 grand Jeep Cherokee with the New Mexico license plate CRM-142. 

Babitz was wearing black jeans, a blue shirt with a button-up shirt underneath and a white baseball cap.

Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber says he can’t say much because of the ongoing investigation, but he’s working closely with police to track down the suspected killer.

“The individual who committed the crime has not been apprehended, but there’s good information that we’re hoping will lead to his arrest very soon,” said Webber. 

Webber told us there’s been a lot of misinformation going around, but crime is mostly down in Santa Fe.

According to new data released Thursday, the only types of crime that are up from last year are robberies and assault.

But Webber says he understands people are worried.

“Data show that Santa Fe crime is in most categories going down compared to last year, and that’s a good thing. But the feeling, the emotion, the perception is that we are having more crime, so we have to go out and work with folks. We have to talk with them. We have to get them to report the crime so that the police have good data to work with,” said Webber. 

In that new data, Santa Fe police have had at least two operations in the shopping plaza where the Best Buy is.

Webber says they’ll continue those operations in hopes of preventing more crime.

Babtiz has been charged with murder and robbery, and felon in possession of a firearm.

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) – Oregon’s unemployment system got an upgrade this year. But for many people using it, the technology is more of a pain than a gain.

We’ve heard from dozens of you about long hold times and an inability to reach anyone on the phone to discuss a claim.

FOX 12 investigative reporter Ezra Kaplan looked into the issues with the system and found the problems go back years.

The Oregon Employment Department’s new software was supposed to make it easier to file for unemployment claims. When a claim is simple, the system works great. But getting a problem resolved can mean a serious headache.

Over the past two months Makela Karisa developed a weekend routine.

“So every Sunday we’re to go online and file a weekly claim, which is what jobs we’ve look for,” said Karisa. “Well, that link to do that has never worked. So if you missed filing on Sunday you have to call.”

But getting someone to pick up a phone call? Good luck.

“So calling looks like this,” explained Karisa. “You dial redial for 30 minutes because the whole day minus queue is full. Then you wait another three to seven hours.”

One time she made it through to a manager.

“She’s the one that said, ‘I’ll call you back at 2:30 with a solution to your website issues,’ and it’s been six days. I have not heard back from her,” said Karisa.

Oregon’s unemployment insurance has been going through a major technology upgrade over the past few years.

During the pandemic, the seriously outdated software the agency used couldn’t keep up with the volume of claims or the various new federal programs.

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That’s where Frances comes in.

With a price tag of $106 million and more than a decade overdue, the new software program is the same system used by the new Paid Leave Oregon program.

The promise to tax payers is an easier experience.

“So basically I’m stuck in a reoccurring loop or I can’t get any closure or any help and there’s no way to escalate and I kind of would like my money,” said Karisa.

Employers in Oregon pay into the unemployment insurance trust fund on their workers’ behalf.

“How does that feel, knowing that this is money that you’ve paid into?” we asked.

“It feels like theft. It feels like fraud. Because they won’t let me talk to anybody higher up to get resolution, what is my hope? I’m just going to go up the government food chain until I can find somebody that will help me,” said Karisa.

We decided to take her complaints all the way up the food chain to David Gerstenfeld, the director at the Oregon Employment Department. With about 450 employees, the agency handles a huge volume of claims.

“We’re getting, depending on the time of year, maybe, and even with pretty low unemployment, 30 to 35,000 people a week that are claiming benefits,” said Gerstenfeld.

What’s clear is that they need more human beings to process complex claims and labor costs money.

During the 2023 legislative session, Gerstenfeld asked the state legislature to increase funding for the agency. But even with the prospect of losing pandemic-era federal funding, legislators balked.

They finally approved funding this year for about 70 new hires.

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As of June 30, 75% of all claims were paid out within three weeks. That’s a significant improvement from April, when only half of those who applied got their payment in a timely manner.

But Gerstenfeld acknowledges, his agency has fallen short this year.

“I am very sorry, and our employees are sorry, the people work here I mentioned before, because we’re here to help people, and we know that it’s frustrating and it’s really frustrating and painful for us to know that we’re not able to meet the need,” said Gerstenfeld.

There are a lot of folks out there wanting more than just an apology.

From Reddit threads to Facebook groups, thousands of people are trying to navigate the system that’s supposed to support them while they look for a new job.

This story does have a happy ending, at least for Michaela.

One day after I interviewed the head of the department of employment and asked about her case, she suddenly had her benefits paid out.

They even said that they would be calling on Monday to make sure she was able to file.

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SUMMIT COUNTY, Utah — After officials warned of the drought forcing bears to be closer in proximity to people, a third bear has been euthanized after being spotted at a Utah campground.

The other day, Larry and Shauna Baker stopped by Soapstone Campground off of the Mirror Lake Highway.

“There was garbage thrown all over the place by two of the bins,” said Larry. “My impression, I don’t know if this is right, was that the bins were full and people just started putting their garbage next to the bin.”

According to Northern Region Outreach Manager Mark Hadley, the Division of Wildlife Resources officials put down a two-and-a-half-year-old male bear the other day after it kept coming to eat garbage out of the dumpsters.

“After we euthanize the animal, we performed what’s called a necropsy, and we examined the bear’s stomach,” he said. “It was filled with trash and food from campsites, so that’s the reason that the bear kept coming in to those areas, is it just kept getting rewarded with things that it wanted.”

If a bear is acting aggressively, or showing no fear of humans, DWR’s policy is that it has to be put down.

“The bear is still a wild animal,” he said. “It hasn’t lost its wildness, but it starts to lose its wariness of people. It starts to become less and less scared of people, and so then that creates a very dangerous situation.”

Campers are advised to clean campsites and tables of all food, waste and anything that smells, and to store such items in bear-safe containers or locked vehicles.

“The last thing in the world that we want to do is have to have to euthanize an animal,” he said. “We’re just asking people, begging people, please be responsible when you’re up camping.”

Soapstone Campground remains closed as U.S. Forest Service rangers clean up the damage done by the bear.