Security companies facing multiple lawsuits following the death of Officer Heidelberg
MIDLAND, Texas November 7 2021 Justice-that is what David Wilson and Nathan Heidelberg’s family members want.
You’ll remember in March of 2019, Nathan Heidelberg, a Midland Police officer, was called to David Wilson’s house in the middle of the night.
Officers were responding to a burglary in progress call after an alarm went off at Wilson’s house and notified police.
Wilson, the homeowner, was armed and shot officer Heidelberg mistaking him for a trespasser.
Jury selection for the murder trial began Tuesday and continues Thursday.
Both parties are individually suing Lydia Security Monitoring and Bam’s Security for “system failures” that led up to officer Heidelberg’s death.
Heidelberg’s family filed the lawsuit in late February, and a few days later Wilson filed his own lawsuit against the two security companies and some of Bam’s employees.
Bam’s Security tried to dismiss the case in June denying any wrongdoing but the court denied the motion.
Both the Heidelbergs and Wilson are seeking more than $1 million in damages.
According to court documents concerning the lawsuit, Wilson’s home alarm, set up by Bam’s Security, had not been armed when Lydia Security Monitoring ran an automated test.
The system sent an error response back to the company.
That’s when two of its employees contacted police to report a burglary in progress.
About 90 seconds after police were dispatched, Lydia Security Monitoring ran another test that showed the alarm system was functioning correctly.
But the company “failed” to let Midland Police know it was a false alarm, or contact Wilson about officers being en route to his home.
Here’s where the two lawsuits vary.
The Heidelberg lawsuit claims when police arrived at the home they announced themselves. Wilson’s lawsuit states the officers were ”a burglar or worse.”
Another thing the Heidelbergs claim? That Wilson’s home was equipped with night-vision video security on the front porch area from inside the residence, but Wilson failed to view or identify who was on his porch before pulling the trigger.
Midland County summoned over 700 jurors for the murder trial this week-the most jurors the county has ever summoned for one case.
Attorneys finally narrowed down the jury to nine women and five men Thursday.
