DENTON, Texas — Updated at 5:29 p.m. with additional information from a neighbor.
A man was shot by Denton police officers in a domestic violence incident early Wednesday, officials said. He is expected to survive.
Officers were at the scene when a 39-year-old man, Samuel Collins, was standing in a doorway while holding a woman and a gun, police said. He later opened fire at officers, who returned fire and struck him, police said. The man was detained and taken to a hospital. No officers were hurt in the incident.
“I woke up to a lot of shouting,” said neighbor Steve Donovan. He said he woke up with his heart pounding. “I heard the pow pow."
Donovan told WFAA that he had no idea what was going on at the apartment complex in Denton where he lives. When he looked outside, his neighbor was on the ground and he saw officers giving commands.
“It’s always one of the most dangerous calls that police officers respond to, said Chief Frank Dixon with the Denton Police Department.
At about 2:20 a.m., officers responded to a disturbance call at an apartment complex on the 2400 block of South Interstate 35E, Chief Frank Dixon said during a news conference.
A 911 caller had told dispatchers that about an hour before they called, there was something in the complex that sounded like a couple of gunshots and possibly a woman being hit, Dixon explained. Then 45 minutes later, the caller heard loud bangs from inside an apartment that he believed were gunshots or a woman being thrown across the room or against a wall, at which point he called 911.
The first officer on scene heard gunshots from inside as they were approaching, so he held his ground, did not approach and called for backup, according to Dixon.
As a second and third unit got to the scene, the officers made a plan to approach the apartment on the ground floor and try to make contact with the suspect inside. At some point, the front door opened, a hand with a gun came out and pointed it in the direction of the officers before going back into the apartment, Dixon said.
"A couple of seconds later," the door opened up again and a man came out holding a woman around the waist along with a pistol. He walked out towards the officers and made contact with them before he shortly thereafter retreated back inside the apartment, according to Dixon.
The officers didn't "force the issue, they don't press to go inside," Dixon detailed as he explained what happened. "They were being prompted by the male throughout this ordeal to make entry into the apartment, which they did not do."
A short while later, while the officers were still on the side of the apartment building, the front door opened up, and "very quickly" the suspect came out a third time, holding the woman and the pistol again, Dixon said.
Officers backed up to give them some room and create distance between themselves and the two. They were giving him commands like "drop the gun" and trying to communicate with him, according to Dixon. At some point in that exchange, the man allegedly shot towards the officers and they returned fire, striking him twice.
Collins was hit in the torso and fell to the ground. The officers moved the woman and pistol away from him and started first aid "immediately," Dixon said.
They called for first responders to take him to a local facility for treatment, and Dixon said he is expected to survive his wounds.
The woman, who is around 29 years old, was not injured to the point of needing medical attention, Dixon added.
No officers were injured in the shooting.
Dixon said two officers fired at the man. One has been on the force for about two years, the other about three and a half years. Both will be placed on administrative leave while the department conducts an internal affairs investigation.
Meanwhile, Collins is currently in the Denton County Jail, charged with three counts of aggravated assault on a public servant. He was also later charged with aggravated assault-family violence. He remains in jail with a total of $1.75 million bond - $500,000 for each of the officers and $250,000 for the domestic violence charge.
Dixon discussed how officers had responded to two separate domestic violence calls at the apartment this year, once for a verbal altercation and a second time when the woman had already left the location by the time police got there.
The man and woman both lived at the apartment together, Dixon said.
The chief took the time during the news conference to discuss how domestic calls can be tense situations for responding officers.
"I think this highlights the ongoing dangers that we're seeing with domestic violence calls," Dixon said. "And also, with the firearm being involved and him shooting at our police officers as they're responding, [that] is also something to be highlighted as well."
As police checked the scene around the apartment after the incident was over, they found "bullet strikes" in a neighboring apartment that had come from the man and woman's apartment. Police believed the strikes happened during one of the shooting instances before officers arrived on scene.
Dixon said the call in total lasted less than 30 minutes from the time the first officer arrived on the scene to the time it was resolved.
He added that there was bodycam footage from the three officers who responded initially and that it will be reviewed. The Texas Rangers are conducting a criminal investigation into the incident.
Dixon said all the information he provided was preliminary and that additional information from the investigation would come from the Rangers.
Officials held a news conference at 6:30 a.m. to provide more information, which is available to watch below.
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