Authorities in New Mexico will not seek charges against three police officers involved in a fatal shooting after arriving at the wrong house last year.

Officers in the town of Farmington fired dozens of shots and killed Robert Dotson, 52, because he appeared at the door of his home holding a gun.

At the time, the officers were responding to a domestic violence call from a house across the street.

The Dotson family filed a lawsuit against the department last year.

According to a complaint filed by the family in court, police arrived at the Dotson residence late on 5 April, 2023 and “parked down the street and did not have their lights on”.

When Mr Dotson opened his front door holding a weapon, police immediately opened fire, striking him 12 times. Another 19 shots were fired at his wife Kimberly, who was unharmed during the incident. Police later said she opened fire on officers with a pistol.

  • originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    15
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    10 months ago

    ha, the old ‘youll be sorry, you just wait!’ . yeah i heard this one a bit from several officers, but in my anecdotal experience most actually didnt care about their sidearm a that much. its a reality that most officers never use the gun in the line of duty, which adds to my point.

    form the inside, its amazing that the exact type of officers you would expect, react to this thought experiment the worst. IE, the best cops dont care about carrying lethal weapons their entire shift. the shittiest cops i worked with freaked the fuck out if you even kind of mention taking away their ‘power’. all anecdotal from one small burg, but damn if it wasnt fucking accurate.

    shitty cops seem to lust firearms

    • DreamlandLividity@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      10 months ago

      Well, I am not from the US, so maybe my perception is wrong. Or maybe you have a selection bias for some reason, e.g. living in a safe are.

      Either way, if enough cops are ok with it then go ahead, and have them not carry firearms. No issue then.

      • originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        10 months ago

        youre not wrong in that there are parts of the united states that are mini war zones, and disarming the police wouldnt make sense. but those are outliers. its a huuge country and youre talkin <1% of officers. lets make exemptions where needed.

        there is no “united states police”, and so we have 50 tiny countries each with their own versions (city,county,state) of different kinds of police forces, and barely any of it is coordinated or standardized.