Three Referees Responded to the Wrong House During a Domestic Violence Call.
As reported by CBS News:
The New Mexico Department of Justice has decided not to press charges against three police officers involved in the shooting death of a Farmington man in April, after they responded to the wrong house during a domestic violence call.
In a letter released Jan. 26, the New Mexico Department of Justice said it had made its decision following a review of the fatal shooting last year of Robert Dotson, 52, who was killed in the doorway of his house in Farmington after the officers opened fire because he had a gun.
The letter, signed by Deputy Attorney General Greer E. Staley, said the Department of Justice found that the officers "did not use excessive force under the circumstances when they discharged their weapons" and that "the officers' initial approach to the Dotson home, although they erroneously approached the wrong house, was reasonable, appropriate and consistent with generally accepted police practices." The department was aided in its investigation by Seth Stoughton, a former police officer and professor at the University of South Carolina's Joseph F. Rice School of Law.
In September, Dotson's family filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of New Mexico against the Farmington Police Department for wrongful death and other claims.
Police knocked on Dotson's door at 11:30 p.m. on April 5, according to the complaint filed by Dotson's family 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."
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