New Mexico police fatally shot her husband after they went to the wrong house — then detained her for hours
New Mexico police fatally shot her husband after they went to the wrong house — then detained her for hours
Kim Dotson has sued the city of Farmington, N.M., and the three officers who fired.
The wife of an armed New Mexico homeowner whom police officers fatally shot when they went to the wrong house on a domestic violence call said she was treated like a suspect, detained for hours and given few details about why officers gunned down her husband.
Months later, the Farmington Police Department still hasn’t reached out to Kim Dotson or her family since police killed Robert Dotson, 52, on April 5, she said.
She said in an interview Wednesday that she learned the officers had knocked on the wrong door that night only because her son is a police officer in the area and was able to read the dispatch log.
“I feel helpless the way all of this has happened,” said Dotson, 49, a former trauma nurse, who said she quit the profession after she tended to her husband when he was shot multiple times in the doorway of their home.
“I don’t understand how these guys get to go home to their families and they broke apart our family,” she said.
“We didn’t do anything wrong.”
Unaware that it was police officers who had opened fire, Dotson said, she returned fire — and the officers shot 19 more times into her home, according to a civil rights suit her family filed in federal district court Friday.
She was uninjured and hasn’t faced charges. …
The wife of an armed New Mexico homeowner whom police officers fatally shot when they went to the wrong house on a domestic violence call said she was treated like a suspect, detained for hours and given few details about why officers gunned down her husband.
Months later, the Farmington Police Department still hasn’t reached out to Kim Dotson or her family since police killed Robert Dotson, 52, on April 5, she said.
She said in an interview Wednesday that she learned the officers had knocked on the wrong door that night only because her son is a police officer in the area and was able to read the dispatch log.
So they tried to cover it up.
A recurring theme in police misconduct.
Be me, police officer, responding to domestic violence charge
Find house, looks close enough, start knocking
Radio says it's the wrong address, nothing going on here. Stay anyway
Innocent old man fearing for his life seeing the gang outside answers his door holding a gun.
Tell the guy to put his hands u-
HE DIDN'T PUT HIS HANDS UP IMMEDIATELY! FIRE, FIRE!
Scared and traumatised wife doesn't realise we're the good guys.
She picked up his gun and returned fire. NO TIME TO EXPLAIN! FIRE, FIRE!
She realise we police, stops firing. Oh right, this was the wrong address. We can go now.
Well done boys, time to head back to the station, suck up some doughnuts, and get that paid administrative leave
We investigated ourselves and found no wrong doing.
You don't have to do anything wrong for the cops to just show up at your house and fucking kill you. This guy. Bo Jean. Breonna Taylor. Daniel Shaver. Austin Haley was 5 years old when a cop shot him in the head and killed him. The cop was trying to get a snake out of a bird house. It wasn't a high risk situation with a violent criminal, they just don't care.
Surprised to see Daniel Shaver mentioned, he usually gets skipped. Also Duncan Lemp, and The Weavers (Ruby Ridge, which, after they entrapped Randy and bungled the investigation by sniping his son, dog, and wife while she was holding their baby, they decided to show their "prowess" by burning a bunch of kids in Waco,) Philando Castille, and MORE!
I make a minor faux pas and ruminate on it for a decade. How does one live after taking a life entirely in error? How do we allow this to happen more than once?
Oh, thanks for this. It's something I've wondered too, though I hadn't put it into words.
When I fuck something up, I feel awful about it. I apologize. I try to make it right — and none of my stupidities have killed anyone.
How can cops care so little?
Lack of empathy.
They justify it because he was armed.
Yet we have the 2nd amendment here. It was his home.
Cops are quick to shoot. That’s a problem.
ETA: the standard is police can use deadly force to stop a threat. That means they’re in danger or someone else is. Yet they seem to see gun and shoot. We are an armed society and just seeing a gun shouldn’t cause anyone to panic.
We need a more narrow defined threat.
Im more conservative and philando Castille shows how fucked up our system is. The cop should have never shot. Both sides should have rioted over that case. That to me showed how badly we need reform
If you're not angry enough, note that the officers knew that they were at the wrong address, and greased the guy, anyway.
Cops need to see the chair for this behavior. I don't give a fuck if it effects their abilities to do their job cause guess the fuck what! They ain't doing their job anyway.
I really don't understand the complacency that exists in America for this kind of behavior. Police are trained to have a license to kill, every other profession this big of a duck up and your license would be revoked. I do also have empathy for Police because they are really good at their job to police(you know busting down doors shooting bad guys)....but that's not all they are responsible for and they get sloppy at their job. Traffic violations should be handled by department of transportation. Someone who is in need of help due to drugs or being in manic state should have mental health professional and/or medical response....I could go on. Also look at all the other countries in the world who are still able to police their population without decking out their officers with a full arsenal.
They are not trained.
They just do whatever they want.
"Killology" is training, though.
God bless the yew ess of ayy
When reading stuff like this I always have to think about Overlord and the Browns motto: Kill first, jump up and down on the carcass later.
When have the police devolved into minions of evil?
When we stopped holding them accountable?
Watch the linked bodycam video. The only mistake the cops made, was knocking on the wrong door.
A good example why all guns should be banned.
edit: I did not see that this was a community for blindly hating the police before posting. Sorry.
I'm pretty sure if you kill an innocent man in his own home, knocking on the wrong door was not your only mistake. Blindly... Lick another boot.
I blindly think professional police officers should be held to a higher standard of behaviour than a scared old man doing his best to defend his home from what he sees as an armed threat out of nowhere
But also yes, banning guns would be nice even though it will never happen
You think going to the wrong address was the only mistake police made here? Man, that's blindness.