One common reason for knocking on doors is in the hope that there will be no answer so you can safely burglarize the home. A second common reason is in the hope that there will be an answer so you can rob the surprised homeowner. I have almost never heard of kids of that age knocking on strangers’ doors to innocently ask for directions.
That said, one common legal reason for shooting a criminal is because you have a reasonable fear of death or of serious bodily harm [details vary by state]. Even if the homeowner suspected criminal motives, the homeowner may not have met this standard - if the prosecution is honestly motivated. The 911 call suggests that the belief was sincere, but it also has to meet the “reasonable man” standard. That could become unpleasant for this man in court.
If robbery was the concern, he could have ignored the knocking (pounding?) on his door. If burglary was the concern, he could have shouted to go away through the door. If he wanted to shoot, he could have waited to see if the kid physically broke in and then fired as soon as the legal standard was met. He may even have met the standard due to something that will not show on the video (or something a leftist prosecutor will ignore just for the joy of persecuting a gun owner, even if he expects to lose in court).
I’ve been there, but I didn’t shoot so I didn’t face charges. Instead, I called 911 . . . and waited . . . and waited . . . and . . . 20 minutes later . . . when the police arrived, they caught the guys (teens, plural) at a nearby home. The baby thugs had chosen not to break into my home for reasons that I do not comment on. The biggest difference between my situation and this homeowner’s is that I carefully studied the laws of my state. I would accept at least a little personal risk rather than shoot when that shooting didn’t meet the legal standards for my state. I shoot well, so the risk even from multiple intruders is manageable. The risk from liberal prosecutors can be deadly.
Homeowner fired a gun, he shot no one. Warning shot? Accidental discharge? Pretty high bar to prove intent, here. I don’t know the laws of Michigan or Detroit but it appears that he’s guilty of brandishing and of discharging a firearm in an occupied dwelling, if he’s guilty of anything and if that’s even illegal there. If they want to ratchet this up to some sort of hate crime, what was the crime? Something nebulous like racial intimidation?