The incident happened about 1:45 a.m. on Friday, 12 September 2025, in Grand Prairie, Texas. Grand Prairie is midway between Fort Worth and Dallas, on the east side of Arlington. Police officers of the Grand Prairie Police Department went to the wrong address for a disturbance call. Officers said they knocked on the door of a Holly Hills Drive home for about five minutes.
The home-renter, Thomas Simpson, a husband and father, said he did not know what was going on. He suspected criminal activity. He exited the house into the garage, then opened the garage door to investigate the situation. He was armed with a pistol.
Simpson told FOX 4 officers never announced themselves, and he thought they were criminals at first.
“They never say police department! But I recognized from the light the sign off the badge when the garage door got to a certain point. And that’s why I dropped my pistol. And okay, let’s figure this out. And then I get shot.”
Simpson says officers fired eight shots, which he believes is excessive.
Grand Prairie police dispute what happened. From nbcdfw.com:
When officers arrived, police said they knocked on the door for about five minutes from a “well illuminated area.” It was then that police said a man came out of the garage and “took an aggressive firing stance and pointed a firearm at officers.”
“Fearing for their lives,” police said, the officers shot at the person and hit him at least once in the leg.
Grand Prairie Police said the man’s injury was not severe and that he walked unassisted to an ambulance. The man was taken to an area hospital, treated and released.
Fortunately, the bullet did not hit bone, but passed through the fleshy upper part of the leg on the outside between the hip and the knee. There are large muscles there. It appears no artery was hit. Eventually, the officers realized they had been sent to the wrong address.
The Grand Prairie Police Department has stated that they will refer a case of aggravated assault against a police officer to the Dallas County District Attorney.
As a matter of policy, the Dallas County DA’s Officer-Involved Shooting Team is independently investigating the shooting. The Grand Prairie Police Department is conducting an administrative investigation, according to cbsnews.com:
The Grand Prairie Police Department’s Office of Professional Standards is conducting a concurrent administrative investigation.
In an interview with CBS News, Thomas Simpson says the entire family was detained for about four hours. One bullet hit a water pipe, flooding the house with three inches of water. From cbs.news.com:
The family was in the process of moving out of the rental home when the shooting occurred. They said one of the bullets ruptured a water pipe, flooding the house with three inches of water. Fortunately, most of their belongings had already been moved out.
Body camera coverage of the incident is said to be available. It has not been released to the public. What the body cameras show will be critical to the investigation.
Wrong address incidents never end well for the police or the innocent people caught up in the error. Texas has strong laws protecting people’s right to defend their homes and property, especially at night.
Exactly when the police realized they were at the wrong residence may become important, considering they held the entire family for four hours. It will be interesting to see if the police made any attempt to shut off the water or called a plumber to do so during that period.
Both the police and Thomas Simpson are fortunate that he was not maimed or killed in the incident.
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About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
