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submitted 1 year ago by deconstruct@lemm.ee to c/news@lemmy.world

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.

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[-] charles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 93 points 1 year ago

Gun owners: if police can murder you for having a gun, you don't have the right to have a gun.

[-] NotBillMurray@lemmy.world 33 points 1 year ago

I mean, evidence shows they'll shoot you whether you're armed or not, might as well be able to shoot back.

[-] seathru@lemm.ee 23 points 1 year ago

What can't police murder you for?

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[-] usualsuspect191@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 year ago

The irony here is that the gun put him in danger instead of adding protection

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[-] Kbobabob@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

They just needed a few good guys with guns walking down the street at the same time to help out.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

They don't even care about gun rights if you're white and a Democrat. Look at how the NRA is not even saying a peep about Hunter Biden's gun charge.

[-] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 58 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

One person who didn't do anything wrong is dead, a bunch of other people who didn't do anything wrong are gonna pay for it, and the people who killed an innocent person because they are violent and incompetent will face no sanctions whatsoever. The police are a fucking street gang.

One person who didn’t do anything wrong is dead, a bunch of other people who didn’t do anything wrong are gonna pay for it, and the people who killed an innocent person because they are violent and incompetent will face no sanctions whatsoever.

America, Fuck Yeah!

[-] CoderKat@lemm.ee 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

They're far more powerful than a street gang. Street gangs are generally universally loathed by the general public and the courts are reasonably happy to lock up gangsters (though do tend to turn a blind eye when gang violence is self contained).

By comparison, the police have this significant chunk of the population bizarrely supporting them ("back the blue" and "thin Blue line"), a massive amount of media propaganda (it feels like every other show on TV is a cop drama), and the courts are heavily on their side (regularly refusing to even bring cases against the police).

I've never seen street gangs have any of those things. Even when there's media about gangs, it usually doesn't shy away from being clear that the gangs are evil.

[-] Son_of_dad@lemmy.world 55 points 1 year ago

So if they thought they killed a man committing domestic abuse, why hand cuff his victims and take them away like criminals. Police statements should never be believed, they're always lying

[-] Brawndo@kbin.social 46 points 1 year ago

This is why police need to be required by law to have occupational insurance.

That way even if they are found to be not guilty through qualified immunity or whatever BS, no insurance company would insure them, which means they couldn't work as a cop anywhere.

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[-] BluJay320@lemmy.blahaj.zone 42 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

So they’re all getting life in prison for murder, breaking and entering, and attempted murder, right?

Right???

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

Paid leave for a month.

[-] luciferofastora@lemmy.zip 42 points 1 year ago

Domestic violence? Let's shoot at the wife too - no more domestics, no more violence.

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[-] cristo@lemmy.world 39 points 1 year ago

They need to stop calling this shit wrongful death and start calling it Murder. This was a straight up murder whether they were at the wrong house or not. End qualified immunity

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 39 points 1 year ago

and the officers fired an additional 19 bullets at her but missed.

Were these officers trained at Imperial Stormtrooper school?

[-] Noodle07@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago

Were these officers trained

No they were not

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

Oh no, they definitely were. Just not the way they should have been.

[-] reagansrottencorpse@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

May as well be, they get trained on "killology"

It's evil.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Yeah, I linked to an article about that in response to someone else. Absolutely agreed.

[-] M0oP0o@mander.xyz 34 points 1 year ago

"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."

Ok, so they give the reason for murdering her husband as being armed (not a crime in the US I think), whats the rational here? If not for the stormtrooper level shooting those kids would be orphans. Or maybe they would shoot them as well?

[-] IamSparticles@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 year ago

They were frightened for their safety.

[-] kmkz_ninja@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

If only people were allowed to knock on the homes of cops, then shoot them and their wife because the cop came to the door with a gun.

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[-] gascown@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 year ago
[-] TheMightyCanuck@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago

Home of the (thankfully) awful shots

[-] BigDaddySlim@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Used to live in Chaves county for many years. Law enforcement there is even worse than the rest of what you hear in the country for a few reasons. Roswell PD for example would pay for your police training, so these guys and gals would get a free ride to FLETC as long as they were going to join RPD.

However, most of the time they would graduate, start working in Roswell and immediately realize how shitty the town and corruption within RPD was and transfer to another office, usually out of state. It became an issue for a long time where people would just get the free FLETC ride and go off elsewhere, making local PD was so thin that State Police as well as the Sheriff's Department were having to help out with mundane calls well below their pay grade.

So this causes the other issue, the only cops there consistently are the douchefucks that peaked in high school (and peek at high schoolers, both a joke and the reality, see Cass Mason of Hagerman, NM PD) who have an ego and power fantasy. They have room temperature IQ and AR15s in the back seat. I'm sure Farmington is no different with their police academy candidates.

So this story didn't surprise me when it happened, sadly. Hope the family gets what they deserve from these shitty cops.

[-] binarybomb@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 1 year ago

Family of man MURDERED by police.. there I fixed your title

[-] Buffalox@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

I can't believe the sense of entitlement among average people. Do they really believe they're entitled to feel safe in their own homes!

/S

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this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2023
489 points (98.8% liked)

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