The New Mexico State Police are investigating a fatal shooting by police officers in Farmington, N.M., after the officers responded to the wrong house for a domestic violence call on Wednesday night, officials said.
Farmington Police Department officers were responding to a call at 5308 Valley View Avenue in Farmington, a city in the rural northwest corner of New Mexico, but knocked on the front door at 5305 Valley View Avenue instead, the State Police said.
Police officers fatally shot Robert Dotson, 52, after they “mistakenly approached” his home around 11:30 p.m. and he opened his screen door armed with a handgun, the New Mexico State Police said in a statement on Thursday.
Mr. Dotson’s wife, who was not named, then fired from the house’s doorway with a handgun, investigators said, and the police fired back. She put down the gun once she realized that the people outside were police officers.
The Farmington Police Department chief, Steve Hebbe, apologized for the fatal shooting in a video statement on Thursday, saying that he was “heartbroken.”
“I extend nothing but my deepest condolences to the Dotson family,” he said. “There’s nothing I can say that will make this better.”
Chief Hebbe said the police department would release body camera footage from the shooting in the next week.
He said that after Mr. Dotson opened his front door, “a chaotic scene” followed, “with officers retreating and opening fire.”
Officials have not specified how many officers fired at Mr. Dotson, named the officers or provided the employment status of the officers.
The New Mexico State Police Investigations Bureau, which is part of the State Police, said on Thursday that it was still investigating the shooting, and did not offer a timeline for how long it might take.
“The New Mexico State Police act solely as fact-finders in their cases and do not determine whether an officer’s actions were justified in these types of matters,” the State Police said in the statement on Thursday. “That decision rests with the district attorney’s office.”
The San Juan County District Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Mr. Dotson’s wife could not immediately be reached on Friday morning.
The State Police said that Farmington police officers who were responding to the call at 5308 Valley View Avenue knocked on the front door of 5305 Valley View Avenue and announced themselves as officers, but no one answered. The officers then asked the dispatcher to call back the person who reported the domestic violence and to have that person come to the front door.
Investigators said that body camera footage showed that as officers “backed away” from the house, Mr. Dotson opened a screen door armed with a handgun. Then at least one officer fired at Mr. Dotson, striking him.
The Office of the Medical Investigator pronounced Mr. Dotson dead at the scene from fatal injuries he received in the shooting, the State Police said. Mrs. Dotson was not injured and has not been charged with a crime. The police officers involved in the shooting were also not injured.
