New Mexico police went to wrong residence and fatally shot the homeowner and exchanged gunfire with his wife

Isobel van Hagen
Updated ·2 min read
16

  • Police in New Mexico went to the wrong address and fatally shot the homeowner on Wednesday.

  • Officers in Farmington were responding to a domestic violence call.

  • Robert Dotson's death is "unbelievably tragic," Farmington Police Chief Steve Hebbe said.

Police in Farmington, New Mexico, went to the wrong home in response to a domestic violence call and shot and killed the homeowner on Wednesday.

Officers in Farmington, a city in the northwestern part of the state, mistakenly approached 5305 Valley View Avenue instead of 5308 Valley View Avenue late Wednesday evening, state police investigating the shooting said in a statement.

After no one answered the door, police officers asked their dispatchers to call the person who reported the incident and have them come to the front door, authorities said.

Body camera footage reviewed by state police showed that the homeowner, Robert Dotson, eventually opened the screen door armed with a handgun. The officers then fired at Dotson, 52, who was later pronounced dead at the scene.

Dotson's wife, who also had a handgun, exchanged gunfire with the officers from the doorway, not knowing they were police. "Once she realized that the individuals outside the residence were officers, she put the gun down and complied with the officer's commands," state police said in their statement.

Dotson's wife, who was not injured, was not charged with a crime.

Calling the incident a "chaotic scene" and an "extremely traumatic event," Farmington Police Chief Steve Hebbe said in a video statement on Thursday that more information would be released in the coming days.

"This ending is just unbelievably tragic. I am extremely sorry that we are in this position," Hebbe said, saying it was a "dark day" for the police force and Dotson's family.

Farmington police said Friday that the three officers involved are on paid administrative leave awaiting a review of the case, the Associated Press reported.

The shooting comes just one day after authorities in Boston raided the wrong hotel room during a training exercise, CNN reported.

In a time of reckoning over police violence across the US, concerns over the use of deadly force by police continue. The US Justice Department also recently opened an investigation in a case where a sleeping teenager was shot and killed by police in Washington.

Read the original article on Insider