Killing of Nathan Heidelberg

In the early morning of March 5, 2019, Midland, Texas police officer Nathan Heidelberg, known to friends and family as Hayden, was shot and killed while responding with a fellow officer to a residence where a silent burglar alarm had gone off. The alarm was later found to have been a false positive, but that information was not relayed to the responding officers. Heidelberg and a probationary officer he was training, Victoria Allee, approached the home, found the front door unlocked, and briefly opened it, triggering an audible "Door open" chime. The homeowners, David and Amy Wilson, were awakened and, unaware police were present, retrieved a handgun. When Heidelberg reopened the door and announced "Midland police, come to the sound of my voice" while shining a flashlight, David Wilson fired a single shot, striking Heidelberg in the wrist and chest. Heidelberg was taken by fellow officers to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 2:30 a.m. He was the first Midland officer killed in the line of duty in over 50 years.

Wilson was arrested and initially charged with second-degree manslaughter, later indicted by a grand jury. In late October 2021, Midland County district attorney Laura Nodolf secured a new grand jury indictment upgrading the charge to murder, arguing Wilson had acted intentionally rather than recklessly. Jury selection drew the largest jury pool in county history and was disrupted by a COVID-19 outbreak among prospective jurors and the presiding judge.

At trial, which began in late November 2021, the prosecution argued Wilson knew he was firing at a person and intended to harm or kill. The defense argued Wilson reasonably believed intruders were entering his home and acted in self-defense under Texas's stand-your-ground law and castle doctrine, pointing to communication breakdowns including a malfunctioning alarm system, ambient noise obscuring Heidelberg's announcement, and thick insulation in the home. Testimony came from responding officers, Texas Rangers, alarm-company staff, medical personnel, and both Wilsons, along with competing expert witnesses on law enforcement procedure, lighting conditions, and the alarm system's history of a recent remote reconfiguration by its installer. After roughly a week of testimony, the jury deliberated about ninety minutes before returning a verdict of not guilty.

Following the acquittal, Wilson and his legal team filed an unsuccessful petition to have district attorney Nodolf removed from office over alleged prosecutorial misconduct, including allegations she conducted a warrantless search of the Wilson home and presented a purportedly fabricated contract document to the grand jury. A visiting judge declined to certify the petition, and that decision was not appealable.

Separately, both Wilson and Heidelberg's family filed civil lawsuits against the alarm installation and monitoring company, each alleging its negligence contributed to the events of that night; the Heidelberg family's suit also named Wilson as a defendant. Heidelberg was posthumously awarded his department's Medal of Valor and the state's Star of Texas award, and a stretch of road near Midland police headquarters was renamed in his memory.