New Mexico city balks at Billy the Kid killer street name

A New Mexico city is balking at the idea of renaming a street after the 19th-century Old West sheriff who shot and killed the infamous outlaw Billy the Kid. The Las Cruces Sun-News reports Las Cruces city councilors appeared reluctant Monday to endorse the plan to rename the street for Sheriff Pat Garrett. Councilors expressed concern about the cost and Garrett’s reputation as a sheriff who often took the law into his own hands. Their reluctance angered a group that worked for two years to promote the name change. The Dona County Commission had endorsed the name change, but it requires city approval because the street is within the city’s limits. Garrett gunned down Billy the Kid in 1881 while he was visiting his girlfriend in Fort Sumner, N.M. AP