The family of a man fatally shot in New Mexico by police officers responding to the wrong house sued the department for wrongful death and other claims in federal court, according to a complaint filed on Friday in the U.S. District Court of New Mexico.
Robert Dotson, 52, was shot and killed in the doorway of his house in Farmington after local police officers opened fire after they said they saw he had a gun.
Police knocked on Dotson’s door at 11:30 p.m. on April 5, according to the complaint filed in court. Dotson grabbed his gun from the top of the refrigerator and went to open the front door. The complaint says “police vehicles were parked down the street and did not have their lights on.”
Three officers standing outside the door immediately opened fire, according to the complaint. Dotson was hit by 12 bullets. His wife, Kimberly, wearing just her robe, came down the stairs to find out what happened, the complaint says, and the officers fired an additional 19 bullets at her but missed.
New Mexico State Police issued a statement saying that Farmington police were responding to a domestic violence call but went to the wrong address.
I mean what is worse? Someone who has nothing to do with this dying horrible to a person who is possibly involved in domestic dispute possibly getting shot to shit. Which isn’t good but at least one has some degree of correlation between what sparked the event than it being a pointless endeavor. Again part of the problem is how abundant guns are in this country. You have a right to bear your arms as the constitution says but the reality is if a fucking cops has a scent of a gun on your ass, chances are the encounter isn’t going to end well for the citizen. I’m not saying its right but it is the reality of the situation. So no it isn’t okay but having a completely non involved party die makes this 10x worse.
Did you miss the fact that they shot at his wife 19 times too? That would have solved the domestic dispute, I guess.
They also shot at the wife, 19 times. In what domestic dispute situation would killing both parties be considered not a colossal failure?