Except that, however rare, happens too often when it is a police officer.
You can’t shoot an unidentified target if you are in a place where it might be an innocent.
I’d prefer not to live in an area where the police think that, in order to keep themselves safe, they are free to shoot anything that moves.
It seems to me you are taking the officer to task, when the real problem was that his daughter circumvented the system to do something she shouldn’t have been doing.
Who was the officer trying to protect? In fact, he was trying to protect the family. He was trying to protect that very daughter, who should have been in her room, and who he thought was in her room.
If you and your wife are home and someone comes down the hallway to your bedroom what are you going to do? Will you allow the person to fire off one or two shotgun rounds before you shoot?
It could be one of your adult children who doesn’t live there any longer, in your home using very bad judgement. Perhaps they have been drinking
Would you be the bad guy for trying to prevent a threat getting a jump on you and your wife?
What if you waited and your wife’s head was blown off? How would that set with you?
Alarm goes off at your house, your family is supposed to be upstairs asleep, they know the alarm code, etc., and to top it off, in the 13 years you have been on the force there are likely some nasty SOBs who would like to get (or have at least threatened you and yours with some) 'paybacks'.
The reaction is to protect family, who (again) should be upstairs asleep, or know the alarm code. Why would they be rummaging around in the dark?
Despite being wrong, the conclusions that the person was an intruder are very logical. That they present a threat, also, considering the employment of the person involved.
Yep. We can second guess the guy--for instance, a really good flashlight might have helped avoid the present situation--but it would have been a beacon to any accomplices who may have been lurking nearby as well, marking their target if they intended to shoot him.
I'm not going to judge this guy. There is little torment beyond what he is likely feeling.