Shooting thru door kills firefighter neighbor at wrong house

[mamabearCali]

Many things could have helped that situation. I have had a few drunk friends around me especially when I was that age. I did not drink really (simply prefer soda) so I was the DD most of the time. I have never sent a friend home in cab. I have always taken them home. I distinctly remember being the DD and driving around a car full of drunks (like 6). All back to their apartments safe and sound. So if his friends had cared a little more it could have helped.

I do not fault the lady. I, however, am not very comfortable shooting through a door I want to knowhere my bullet is going. She did what she felt she had to, and I do not fault her.

However what caused this incident was a young man that got really really drunk. Please.....if you are going to get trashed have someone around who isn't trashed to keep you out of trouble.

He did not "deserve" death, but he put himself in a bad place and got killed.

[Seburiel]

She would be a murderer in many states back East.

Well, thank The Maker we aren't THERE.
Really - he messed up, and sadly, he won't learn from it. All the blame rests upon his shoulders. as far as she goes - aren't we 'innocent until PROVEN guilt, rather than guilty based on the supposition of some armchair quarterbacking?

[cb1000rider]

Last year, I was out with a friend and his security systems went off. It's one of those new-fangled contraptions that pages his cell phone. From the phone, you can see what's going on via cameras in the house.
Someone had entered through the back door (unlocked) and was walking around the house. No one home, but clearly not a good situation.
He called the local PD (system is unmonitored). PD arrives, enters the house, finds the guy asleep on the couch.

He had wandered over from a party next door, drunk, didn't know where he was and found a couch to sleep on.

No charges pressed, but that that guy was *very* lucky...

I understand why a 65 year old woman would shoot through a door, but it's still a tragedy.
A drunk at the wrong house probably isn't that uncommon...

[TomsTXCHL]

...I understand why a 65 year old woman would shoot through a door, but it's still a tragedy.

I am married to one and am here to tell all of ya, there ain't necessarily nuthin' slow or stodgy or feeble or frightened or incompetant or whatever else you might think about a 64 year-old woman being "old". Nineties is Old, Eighties too I suppose, Seventies maybe, but early 60s is not old.

Yes it's a tragedy; I wonder whether the legal process is concluded on this shooting; result?

[gljjt]

Count me harsh. Being too intoxicated to realize you are not at your own house after making your way past an intervening gate and being yelled at by the homeowner, and continuing to try to open the door, is not the homeowner's fault. It appears the homeowner correctly ID'd her target, which was some guy who kept trying to get through her front door despite being warned off. I might have waited for the door to actually be breached, but then I am not a 64 y.o. woman living alone and armed with only a revolver.

He sounds like under normal conditions he was a good guy, veteran and firefighter, but neither of those statuses were known to the woman, and neither are free passes to do foolish, threatening things and get away with them.

RIP.

Tragic but I agree with this.

[03Lightningrocks]

...I understand why a 65 year old woman would shoot through a door, but it's still a tragedy.

I am married to one and am here to tell all of ya, there ain't necessarily nuthin' slow or stodgy or feeble or frightened or incompetant or whatever else you might think about a 64 year-old woman being "old". Nineties is Old, Eighties too I suppose, Seventies maybe, but early 60s is not old.

Yes it's a tragedy; I wonder whether the legal process is concluded on this shooting; result?

I was thinking the same thing. I know many 60ish men and women. They are not the least bit handicapped. Heck, my mother is 72 and runs around like she is in her teens.

Maybe she shouldn't have shot through the door. Thing is, we are all looking at it from our 20/20 hindsight. In the moment it was probably not quite so clear as it is now.

[pistola]

The only thing we know for sure is he wont ever get drunk and try to break into a womans home again.

[KD5NRH]

I was thinking the same thing. I know many 60ish men and women. They are not the least bit handicapped. Heck, my mother is 72 and runs around like she is in her teens.[/quote

OTOH, I know plenty in their 50s that whine like they're 110. It really depends on the person and their motivation.

Maybe she shouldn't have shot through the door. Thing is, we are all looking at it from our 20/20 hindsight. In the moment it was probably not quite so clear as it is now.

Given the KHOU report that he was kicked out of the bar, and how much most bars will tolerate, especially on a heavy drinking holiday, I tend to suspect there was a bit more than just banging on the door going on.