ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The family of a man shot and killed by police in northwestern New Mexico after they responded to the wrong address called Thursday for the officers to be charged with murder and the police chief to resign.
Lawyers for the family of Robert Dotson issued a statement outlining their concerns. They accused the Farmington Police Department of “wild use of force," saying there has been a lack of accountability.
"We demand that changes. We want what happened to Robbie to also result in a better community for everyone in Farmington,” attorney Shon Northam said in a statement.
The family wants San Juan County's district attorney and New Mexico’s attorney general to investigate other alleged excessive-force cases involving the department. They also asked federal prosecutors in a letter sent Thursday to bring charges against the officers involved in Dotson's shooting for civil rights violations.
“He died in his doorway. It was no different than an execution,” the letter reads. “The officers did not have probable cause to suspect any crime had occurred at the residence when they entered his gated yard late at night and knocked on his door.”
Farmington Police Chief Steve Hebbe has called tragic, saying his agency is trying to understand what happened that night when officers mistakenly approached the Dotson home.
Farmington police said Thursday they are committed to cooperating with the New Mexico State Police as that agency conducts its investigation. “It is important to let the legal process take its course and not draw conclusions before all the facts are known,” the department said in a statement.
The three officers involved remain on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation. The State Police Investigations Bureau has said it will share its findings with the district attorney once the review is complete.
It remains unclear why the officers responded to the wrong address after getting a domestic violence call from a home across the street.
The case comes amid an ongoing reckoning across the country over use of force by law enforcement officers. Just weeks ago, prosecutors in California with involuntary manslaughter in connection with the 2020 death of a man who was being restrained following a traffic stop.
Body camera last week showed officers arriving at the home. They walked up to the front door, passing the address that was posted on the home and illuminated by an exterior light. They knocked on the door and announced themselves.
While knocking twice more, the officers can be heard asking a dispatcher to confirm the address and to tell the caller to come to the door. The dispatcher states the address of a home across the street.
Within seconds, Dotson, armed with a handgun, opened the door and the officers immediately began shooting, firing multiple rounds as they backed away. The man can be seen dropping to the ground.
The family's lawyers said footage from the home's doorbell camera shows the officers were smirking and laughing before Dotson opened the door and was blinded by the officers' flashlights.
The showed a chaotic scene erupting about 4 minutes after officers first arrived at the wrong address. Once the gunfire stopped, sirens could be heard blaring as more officers arrived and Dotson's wife could be heard pleading with officers that her husband had been shot and needed help after realizing they were outside her home.
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The date of the shooting has been corrected to April 5.
