Grand Prairie police officers go to wrong address, shoot resident

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - The Dallas County District Attorney’s Office is investigating the Grand Prairie Police Department after officers responded to the wrong address and ended up shooting a resident.

Grand Prairie Police Shooting

What we know:

The shooting happened around 1:45 a.m. on Friday at a home in the 3000 block of Holly Hill Drive, which is in a residential neighborhood near Interstate 20 and S Belt Line Road.

Grand Prairie police officers were responding to a 911 call about an active disturbance. However, the caller’s cellphone populated the wrong address into the dispatch system. So, officers showed up at a neighbor’s house instead.

Police said the officers knocked on the front door for about five minutes. No one answered, but a resident later came out of the garage, assumed an "aggressive stance," and pointed a gun at the officers.

The officers feared for their lives, so several fired shots at the resident, police said.

The resident was hit in the leg and not seriously hurt. He was treated at the hospital and later released.

What they're saying:

Thomas Simpson told FOX 4 he thought there were intruders breaking into his home because his dogs were barking angrily, so he grabbed a gun.

"What I saw is the garage door open. I saw two pairs of legs. So I raised my pistol, ready to fire, assuming it was criminals. I never popped the round off. As soon as the door opened, I saw their badge. I threw the gun to the ground, got shot in the leg. I dropped to the ground and Grand Prairie PD proceeded to fire about eight rounds after I was on the ground,"  he said.

Simpson claims the officers did not say why they were there even after he was shot.

"And I asked them, why are you even here. ‘Oh, we don’t know about that.' Okay! There's an extreme lack of confidence in the Grand Prairie Police Department somewhere," he said. 

Simpson said if he had heard an officer offer identification, things would have gone differently.

"I would have never raised my pistol if they would have identified themselves, police or Grand Prairie police. Obviously, I'm not gonna raise my gun to a cop, but I didn't know," Simpson said.

While he's recovering from an injury, he's more concerned about the impact on his children.

"Even my children, 13 year old and 16 year old, had to sit in the back of a cop cart and handcuffs for four hours while I was at the hospital till I could come back here. There's no way that is standard procedure."

"They saw their daddy gets shot. We're gonna talk to lawyers and go after everybody responsible for it," Simpson continued. "They need to pay. They need to learn their consequences, to their actions."

Simpson showed his gunshot wound to FOX 4. The bullet struck the homeowner in the thigh.

"It straight through the front here, come out the back here. They told me it'll be they stitch it the best they could, but they can't close it because of the type of wound it is. So it's going to be leaking for two weeks. I have to constantly change the bandages."

Despite the injury, Simpson has a positive outlook after his ordeal.

"I’m getting a little bit of a limp. Everyone's making me rest. And I'm like, well, we gotta move, man. We got stuff to do. Let me do my job."

"A slight inconvenience," he went on. "I'm looking at it. I'm trying to be positive about it. There has to be something positive to come out of it. Hopefully they'll follow their police procedures in the future, because from what it appears, a lot of the actual procedures were skipped."

The gunfire also allegedly hit a water pipe and caused flooding throughout the home.

What we don't know:

Police have not said whether the officers announced themselves or gave the resident any commands.

They haven't yet responded to FOX 4's questions about Simpson's claims.

What's next:

Grand Prairie police will let the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office decide if the injured resident should face charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon against a peace officer.

The DA’s office is also conducting an independent investigation to determine whether the officer involved in the shooting acted appropriately.