By Phil Helsel -
NBC News
Police officers in Farmington, New Mexico, wondered if they were in the right house moments before opening the door and fatally shooting the homeowner, who was armed, according to police body camera footage released on Monday. Friday.
Officers took the wrong address
in the April 5 incident that killed the home's owner,
52-year-old Robert Dotson,
Police Chief Steve Hebbe acknowledged in a statement.
"Once again, we want to express our condolences to the Dotson family and, as your police chief, I want to convey how sorry I am that this tragedy has occurred," Hebbe said.
The New Mexico State Police is investigating the incident.
Police released body camera video of an officer before they shot and killed a man after showing up at the wrong house in Farmington, New Mexico.Farmington Police
In total, Farmington police released
six videos of the incident
— one for each of the three officers who participated in the operation, as well as several slow-motion videos — and a compilation of images posted on Facebook.
Each video recorded by the agents' cameras lasts about 20 minutes.
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Both the New Mexico State Police and police in Farmington, a town of 46,000 in the northwestern part of the state, said officers were responding to a call of alleged domestic violence at an area home at 11:30 p.m.
However,
they mistakenly went to another home
apparently located across the street, authorities said.
One of the videos shows an agent knocking three times on the door of the wrong house and announcing that they were policemen.
In another, titled "Agent 1", the policeman is heard knocking on the door and a colleague is heard talking about the address.
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"Isn't it 5308? That's what it said there, right?" asks the one in front of the door. "No, it said 5305, right?", replies the other.
The agent who knocks on the door requires confirmation of the number by radio and someone tells him that it is 5308.
The officer knocking on the door seems to laugh after being reassured that he's at the right address, then curses as the door starts to open.
Video then shows the officer backing up and pointing a flashlight at the opening door.
"Hey, hands up!" the police officer yells before opening fire on the person on the other side, who was later identified as Dotson.
In a fragment of one of the slow-motion videos, the owner of the house appears to be seen raising a weapon.
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In another of the videos, titled "Agent 2", the wife of the murdered man is heard screaming "OMG!", before several shots ring out.
State police said
the woman fired at the officers, who fired back,
before realizing they were police officers.
No one was hurt.
In the footage, the officer is heard saying that she took the gun Dotson had and pointed it at them.
The woman appears pleading for help, according to the images, saying "someone has shot my husband" and reporting that her children were upstairs.
Someone on the radio confirms that there are three minors upstairs.
The video shows Dotson lying on the floor, in a robe, inside the house, with a gun lying next to him on the floor.
The three officers who were there fired their weapons
during the incident, admitted police, who are investigating how many shots were fired.
The Dotson family, along with their attorney, viewed the videos at the San Juan County district attorney's office before they were released Friday, police said.
Hebbe explained that the videos were released in an act of transparency.
All three agents were placed on paid administrative leave.
Their names do not appear in the videos and were not released.
Two of them have been in the police force for five years and the third joined three years ago.