There are many ways to look at the recent killing of youth pastor Stephen Timmons on the Dragonfly Trail. Fortunately, this is so abnormal that it probably won’t happen again. But was it so abnormal that it shouldn’t have happened in the first place?
I take this personally because I occasionally ride my mountain bike with a group on trails near Dragonfly and the Big Juniper. Any of us could have been victims.
I have looked at every story I could find about Joseph Costello, the suspect charged with murder in the case. This is a big deal that has been covered by state TV stations and the Albuquerque Journal. Allegedly in 2021 Costello pointed a crossbow at a family floating on the Rio Grande while shouting racial slurs.
But that case was dismissed because Costello was found incompetent to stand trial. And that’s where the controversy starts. If he wasn’t competent for trial, why should he be competent to bike around the Fort Bayard trail system with a gun? And where’d he get that gun anyway?
None of the news stories talk about the gun other than to say it was a 9mm handgun. If police officers checked the serial number and traced the gun, they’re not talking about the results. Was it a legal gun and did Costello buy it? Gun laws are not foolproof, and the gun might have been legal—purchased at a gun show or gifted by a friend—although those loopholes are controversial.
You might also ask why he was incompetent to stand trial. Or you could check for yourself. Go to Youtube.com. Search for “Killing The Illuminati”. Watch as much as you can stand—not much if you’re like me. But is everyone who believes in the ancient Illuminati conspiracy or the modern QAnon theory mentally ill? If so, we’re going to have a pretty full madhouse.
Costello’s disrespect in court went beyond “normal” paranoia. District Judge Jim Foy ruled that Costello posed a risk to community safety and that he should remain in jail until trial.
The murder didn’t come out of the blue. The Silver City High School cross country team was confronted by a man with a gun on that trail. A wildlife biologist reported that a man looking like Costello accused the biologist of following him. And yet there didn’t seem to be any warnings to the many people using the trail.
And what about the Extreme Risk Protection Order law (often called a Red Flag law) passed with a lot of controversy back in 2020? Second Amendment enthusiasts were concerned the law would be used to take away guns unnecessarily, even though the law requires a court hearing. They needn’t have worried. The law has been invoked only 11 times since 2020, and yet people like Timmons continue to be killed by people who shouldn’t have firearms.
If a Red Flag law applies to anyone, should be someone like Timmons. But he wasn’t disarmed even after being declared incompetent.
Instead, it took an extreme bike incident to catch him. Have you ever been stopped by police while riding a bike? Neither have I. Nobody in their right mind challenges two-ton autos on a 25-pound bike. But that seems to be what Costello did.
All the incidents I read about illustrated a high level of paranoia, as did Costello’s YouTube videos. But that raises an important question. At the hearing, Judge Foy said he wasn’t sure if Costello’s disrespect in court was because of mental illness or anti-social behavior. Or in laymen’s terms, was he crazy or evil?
What’s the difference? If we say that all bad actions are due to mental illness, it undermines the concept of free will and implies that any mental problem can be cured. On the other hand, mental illness is real, and sometimes good people do bad things because of it.
But when it comes to murder, I don’t really care if a person is sick or bad. He can’t be turned loose among us. If Costello is ruled competent, he can be tried for murder, and if convicted, put away. If he’s ruled incompetent because of mental illness, he can be put away in an asylum until a therapist is sure enough of a cure to take his place if he kills again. It might take a while to find a counselor that confident.
I hope there’s more to this story than meets the eye. I hope there were serious efforts to stop Costello that haven’t been made public. Prevention won’t stop every tragedy, but based on what we know so far, law enforcement needs to ask itself some serious questions.
