{"id":34759,"date":"2023-04-07T15:40:09","date_gmt":"2023-04-07T21:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/update-neighbors-respond-to-police-shooting-in-farmington\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T08:20:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:20:26","slug":"update-neighbors-respond-to-police-shooting-in-farmington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/update-neighbors-respond-to-police-shooting-in-farmington\/","title":{"rendered":"Update: Neighbors respond to police shooting in Farmington"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The home at 5305 Valley View Ave., where Robert Dotson, 52, was shot and killed. (Debra Mayeux\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The day after Farmington Police Chief Steve Hebbe announced in a video statement<\/a> that officers shot and killed Robert Dotson, members of his tight-knit neighborhood remembered him as the rope that tied everyone together.<\/p>\n

Neighbors were shocked and saddened by an April 5 police-involved shooting that left Dotson dead. He was 52.<\/p>\n\n

Shortly before midnight Wednesday, police officers responded to the wrong house during an investigation of a reported domestic abuse. They were called to 5308 Valley View Ave., but ended up at 5305 Valley View Ave., where Dotson lived with his family.<\/p>\n

When Dotson answered the door with a firearm in hand, \u201cofficers fired at least one round from their duty weapon(s), striking Mr. Dotson,\u201d according to a New Mexico State Police investigation<\/a>. Dotson died at the scene.<\/p>\n

The Dotsons moved into their home at 5305 Valley View about five years ago and quickly became friends with everyone on the block, according to several neighbors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were awesome, amazing people,\u201d neighbor and friend Krystal Rahm said about the family. \u201cEveryone on the street is close knit. All of our kids know each other. They play sports together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rahm characterized Robert as \u201csuper-helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The
The home at 5308 Valley View Ave., the correct location of the domestic violence call on April 5 that led to officers mistakenly approaching the home of Robert Dotson, at 5305 Valley View Ave.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Will Richardson, who lives across the street from Dotson, agreed, saying whenever he was out working in his yard, Robert would come over and ask if he could help. \u201cHe was a great guy,\u201d Richardson said. \u201cI can\u2019t say enough good things about Kim (Dotson\u2019s wife) and Robert. They were always watching out for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dotson even saved Richardson\u2019s dog. The animal become trapped in an inflatable pool and was unable to escape. Dotson went to the home and managed to rescue the animal before it drowned.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was absolutely a great guy,\u201d Richardson said.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Hebbe said in a video statement on social media<\/a> that officers made attempts to identify themselves as police officers while trying to make contact Dotson before he was shot.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Dotson was not the subject of the call that our officers were responding to, and this ending is just unbelievably tragic. I\u2019m extremely sorry that we are in this position,\u201d Hebbe said.<\/p>\n

Police said Dotson\u2019s wife then fired a handgun from the door. Officers returned fire, and she put the gun down and complied with officers\u2019 commands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shanice Gonzales, spokesperson for FPD, said the original domestic violence call was investigated and \u201ceverybody is OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rahm described the scene that shook the neighborhood Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were lights everywhere,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

When she left for work Thursday morning, there were \u201ca lot\u201d of police vehicles, both from FPD and New Mexico State Police, that were blocking off the street and nearby roads.<\/p>\n

New Mexico State Police and Farmington Police were on scene all day Thursday, and New Mexico State Police was leading the investigation.<\/p>\n

The names of the officers involved in the shooting have not been released. Police plan to release body camera video of the incident after officer statements are collected.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Neighbors remember Robert Dotson as a unifying figure on their block <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33961,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[168,799,2833,28,51],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-34759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-crime","tag-farmington","tag-farmington-police-department","tag-headlines","tag-police"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34759"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82730,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34759\/revisions\/82730"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34759"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=34759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}