Shooting thru door kills firefighter neighbor at wrong house

[philip964]

The article does not mention that he was also a two tour Iraqi war veteran in addition to being a fire fighter. He is also the son of the neighbors she lives next door to, maybe they were best friends. She probably knows him. Knows his friends. Maybe he lived there as a child and grew up in the neighborhood. From the photos it was a very nice neighborhood.

I'm feeling really sorry for a lot of people. No doubt he had lots of friends.

Took a cab home after partying on St. Patty's day.

He made a mistake. The cabbie made a mistake. I think the woman probably now regrets her decision to shoot.

Was she on the phone to 911 when she shot? How far away were the police? Did he sound like a drunk at her door, fumbling with keys, trying to get in? Or a robber/rapist/murderer?

We all have a point we will pull the trigger. I want to know what I am shooting at. You can't bring the bullet back.

If too much of this happens, the current legal right to defend ourselves can be taken away. She would be a murderer in many states back East.

[mojo84]

while I haven't read the article

From the article you did not read:


"At the time, she again told him to leave and that she was armed," said Sgt. Dan Zientek, with the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office.

After several verbal warnings, she pulled the trigger.

Anygunanywhere

OK well that is what she TOLD the officer but I don't see anything about witnesses.

And while she fired thru the door, it's not clear that he had even made it to her door i.e. she had some sort of iron gate. So she shoots thru the door and the bullet makes it past the iron and kills the guy.

I think she has some explaining to do myself...

Her word against a drunken deadman's that was so drunk he didn't realize he wasn't at his own house. I give her the benefit of the doubt until some credible evidence to the contrary comes to light.

[jmra]

while I haven't read the article

From the article you did not read:


"At the time, she again told him to leave and that she was armed," said Sgt. Dan Zientek, with the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office.

After several verbal warnings, she pulled the trigger.

Anygunanywhere

OK well that is what she TOLD the officer but I don't see anything about witnesses.

And while she fired thru the door, it's not clear that he had even made it to her door i.e. she had some sort of iron gate. So she shoots thru the door and the bullet makes it past the iron and kills the guy.

I think she has some explaining to do myself...

Her word against a drunken deadman's that was so drunk he didn't realize he wasn't at his own house. I give her the benefit of the doubt until some credible evidence to the contrary comes to light.

100%

[WildBill]

while I haven't read the article

From the article you did not read:


"At the time, she again told him to leave and that she was armed," said Sgt. Dan Zientek, with the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office.

After several verbal warnings, she pulled the trigger.

Anygunanywhere

OK well that is what she TOLD the officer but I don't see anything about witnesses.

And while she fired thru the door, it's not clear that he had even made it to her door i.e. she had some sort of iron gate. So she shoots thru the door and the bullet makes it past the iron and kills the guy.

I think she has some explaining to do myself...

Her word against a drunken deadman's that was so drunk he didn't realize he wasn't at his own house. I give her the benefit of the doubt until some credible evidence to the contrary comes to light.

100%

I agree with Mojo84 and JMRA.

While I don't think shooting through a door is a wise choice, being a war veteran and firefighter does not mitigate his actions of getting drunk to the point of not knowing where he lived and trying to enter the house. Trying to find fault with the taxi driver for dropping him off at the wrong place is ludicrous.

[WildBill]

OK well that is what she TOLD the officer but I don't see anything about witnesses.

I probably wouldn't be a witness to this event. At this hour I would be inside my house asleep.

[mojo84]

Me being a man, I probably would not shoot through the door. There's no way I can fault a sixty four year old lady for doing so. Especially if she was there alone (don't recall if this is the case here or not. )

[NavyVet1959]

The houses in that area are kind of similar. I looked at them via Google's Street View and I did not see any street lights and they tended to be set back from the road a bit. It's also possible that the houses do not have their address listed or the address is lit at night. The taxi driver could be relying on where the GPS told him the address would be. It's also possible that the drunk guy was giving the taxi driver directions and indicated the wrong house. I could see how this could happen to a guy especially if he had been drinking so much that he felt the need to call a taxi.

Around 10 years ago, I had a similar situation occur (except that I was not drinking and was not shot). I was working out of state and had an apartment. I had worked late one night and by the time I got back to the apartment, it was dark. The apartment complex consisted of buildings that looked exactly like each other and had around 8 apartments in the building. I turned into one of the parking lots, parked my car in front of "my apartment" and then tried to go in. The key fit, but would not turn. I figured it was something wrong with the key, so I kept jiggling it. Eventually, I see the blinds move and I'm thinking "Hey! Someone's in my apartment!"... I then step back and look around and then realize that something just didn't seem right. I think one of the small trees was in the wrong place. I contacted the apartment complex the next day and asked them to relay my apologies. I'm sure I could have easily been shot and it would have been justifiable.

[Texsquatch]

Anyone blaming his friends for stuffing him in a cab instead of making sure he made it home safely? The blame stops with him. Otherwise it can stretch out as far away from his poor choices and as people/media want it to, land flat on top of guns being the problem.

[texanjoker]

Did she try and call 911 first or just blast through the front door? Drunks often go to the wrong door, people call 911, they go to jail for PI and nobody is blown away from inside. Seems like an over reaction if he wasn't physically kicking the door in.

[MechAg94]

"At the time, she again told him to leave and that she was armed," said Sgt. Dan Zientek, with the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office.

After several verbal warnings, she pulled the trigger.

"She fired twice through the door, striking the person," Sgt. Zientek said.

The original article doesn't say if she was calling 911 or not, but if verbal warning were loud enough to hear, he must have been pretty drunk.

The thing to remember hear is that it really doesn't matter what the guy's intentions were. If you try to enter someone else's home after dark, you might get shot. Doing stupid stuff has consequences whether you are drunk or not.

[Shoot Straight]

The article does not mention that he was also a two tour Iraqi war veteran in addition to being a fire fighter.

He sounds like a physically imposing man. Great disparity in size and strength would give her more justification.

[jmra]

Did she try and call 911 first or just blast through the front door? Drunks often go to the wrong door, people call 911, they go to jail for PI and nobody is blown away from inside. Seems like an over reaction if he wasn't physically kicking the door in.

How do you know he wasn't? How was she supposed to know that he was just a drunk instead of someone intent on breaking in and assaulting her? The guy could have forced his way in before she had a chance to call much less by the time you guys got there.
There is one place to lay blame here and that blame falls squarely on the shoulders of the deceased.

[goose]

I think she has some explaining to do myself...

Yes, she should explain where she went out and lured a drunk up onto her porch from? He gave up many of his rights when he entered her property at night and attempted to enter her house. What rights are we asking her to give up because he can't control himself? I'm not asking her to give up a single one. She has nothing to explain to me.

[Deltaboy]

Folks when you get Drunk bad things happen.

Poor lady she must have been scared out of her wits.

[jmra]

Folks when you get Drunk bad things happen.

Poor lady she must have been scared out of her wits.

There is a banner at the high school where I work that says "You are free to make your own choices, however you are not free from the consequences of those choices".