Robert Dotson, 52, was shot and killed by officers who arrived at the wrong address in April 2023.

Authorities in New Mexico will not seek charges against three police officers involved in a fatal shooting after arriving at the wrong house last year.

Officers in the town of Farmington fired dozens of shots and killed Robert Dotson, 52, because he appeared at the door of his home holding a gun.

At the time, the officers were responding to a domestic violence call from a house across the street.

The Dotson family filed a lawsuit against the department last year.

According to a complaint filed by the family in court, police arrived at the Dotson residence late on 5 April, 2023 and “parked down the street and did not have their lights on”.

When Mr Dotson opened his front door holding a weapon, police immediately opened fire, striking him 12 times. Another 19 shots were fired at his wife Kimberly, who was unharmed during the incident. Police later said she opened fire on officers with a pistol.

  • Wrench@lemmy.world
    211·
    11 months ago

    In my experience, cops don’t always identify themselves during the knock. They just slam on your door extremely aggressively, and may respond that they’re cops if you yell through the door. Nor is there reason to believe them even if they do identify themselves verbally.

    I hate guns, and don’t own one. But I would not blame someone for bringing a gun with them after one of those knocks in the middle of the night. Who knows who it could be.

    • ultranaut@lemmy.world
      9·
      11 months ago

      For sure, when they knocked on my door at 4am I was sound asleep and had no idea what was going on. I don’t think they ever identified themselves as police, they just kept pounding aggressively on the door. My first instinct was full fight mode, it was a very confusing and terrifying way to wake up. I can definitely see arming yourself in that situation until you figured out who the fuck is pounding on the door in the middle of the night. It’s the opening the door while armed part specifically that’s a bad idea, that’s inherently going to escalate any situation and you don’t know who is at your door or whether they are actually a threat so it’s not appropriate to be brandishing a gun. Either don’t open the door until you know who it is or keep the gun out of sight until you know it’s actually needed.