No Charges for Cops Who Killed Man at Wrong Home

The New Mexico Department of Justice has decided not to charge three police officers who killed a man after they went to the wrong home in Farmington last year. Robert Dotson, 52, was shot 12 times in his doorway after he opened his door armed with a handgun around 11:30pm on April 5, CBS News reports. Officers fired another 19 shots at his wife but missed. The officers "did not use excessive force under the circumstances," Deputy Attorney General Greer E. Staley said in a letter explaining the decision not to press charges. The officers, responding to a domestic violence call involving 5308 Valley View Avenue, killed Dotson at 5305 Valley View Avenue.

Staley said that although officers had the wrong address, the way they approached the home "was reasonable, appropriate, and consistent with generally accepted police practices." In a lawsuit filed last year, the family said officers did not knock loudly and their announcement that they were police officers "could not be heard and was not heard upstairs," the Washington Post reports. The suit said that when Dotson grabbed a gun for personal protection, he "was blinded by police flashlights" and "had no idea who was in his yard shining bright lights at him." Kimberley Dotson, after finding her husband "lying in his blood in the doorway," fired at the people outside but stopped after realizing she was shooting at police officers, according to the lawsuit.

All three officers kept their jobs and returned to work after the shooting, ABC News reports. "The New Mexico Department of Justice considers this matter closed," Staley's letter states. "However, our review is limited to potential criminal liability and does not address any potential disciplinary and/or civil liability issues." Mark Curnutt, an attorney for the Dotson family, tells the Post that the "devastated" family is "not particularly surprised by the decision." He says the AG's office didn't talk to the family or carry out an independent investigation before it decided not to file charges. "Nothing can return Robert to his family," he says. "And it appears nothing will be done to hold these officers accountable." (More New Mexico stories.)