Three Farmington Police officers involved in the April 5 shooting death of Robert Dotson are back on active duty within the department.
Farmington City Attorney Jennifer Breakell confirmed Officers Daniel Estrada, Dylan Goodluck and Waylon Wasson are working again.
Estrada is reportedly working traffic. Goodluck, who was a rookie at the time, reportedly completed his on-the-job training. However, Breakell would not confirm this, saying, “I do not have that information.”
“Officer Wasson is back on directed assignment” after returning from an undisclosed leave, she said.
The officers were placed on administrative leave after their involvement in an officer-involved shooting that led to the death of Farmington resident Robert Dotson, 52.
The officers were on duty April 5 when they responded to a domestic violence call at 11:30 p.m. on Valley View Drive. The address they were given by dispatch was 5305 Valley View Drive, but the officers went to the wrong address, 5308 Valley View Drive, which is a house across the street.
The officers approached the front door of the Dotson home and knocked three times, identifying themselves as police officers. They can be seen on the doorbell camera standing in front of the door talking.
On a lapel camera recording, Wasson can be heard trying to confirm the address with dispatch. Then, Goodluck said they were at the wrong house, and the officers backed up.
“Officer Wasson heard the distinctive sound of someone inside the house rack a firearm,” attorney for the officers, Luis Robles, said in a prepared statement.
The video shows Dotson open the door with a gun in his hand. The officers drew their guns and fired on Dotson, killing him in the doorway of his home.
Not long after, Dotson’s wife, Kimberly Dotson, also fired on the officers, but then dropped the gun and surrendered to police. In a news conference not long after the shooting, she said it was a “horrific night that happened, was like a horrible nightmare.”
“This gross act of not being at the right address has taken everything from me. We cannot figure out how to breathe,” she said, adding that her husband was trying to protect her and their children. “You were ambushed by a firing squad.”
The Dotson family hired California attorneys Shon Northam and Mark Reichel. When they were contacted on July 26, Reichel said “I don’t represent them anymore.”
The family reportedly hired New Mexico attorneys to handle their interests in the case.
The New Mexico State Police investigated the officer-involved shooting and turned their evidentiary findings over to the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office.
“We did officially receive the case and are currently reviewing the findings,” said Lauren Rodriguez, director of communications for the Attorney General’s Office.
She added that once a determination is made, a “statement of some kind” will be released by the office.
