You’re right. I hate to pile on the widow but she should first look in the mirror for people to blame, I’m sure she already has.
It like it when things are black and white. This is gray.
“...pile on the widow...”
Well, it’s not so much piling on the widow - it’s just looking at facts.
When you take on the responsibility of caring for a loved one with THAT kind of progressive debilitation - and it IS a noble and honorable thing to care for your family - there are real and practical precautions you MUST take. Especially if that person has “slipped out” multiple times. Something as simple as changing locks so that they cannot be opened without a key, or making sure someone can be alert and watching round the clock, in shifts if necessary.
When people become a danger to themselves, there are hard realities that need to be faced. Assisted living facilities, home care, etc. A person with that kind of illness cannot be left alone, and if it’s your job to care for them, it’s your job to make sure they’re not able to “slip out”.
The guy doing the shooting... well, again - it’s 4am, you’re awakened by someone truing to come in the front door, you have NO clue that it’s the harmless Alzheimer’s neighbor - who, by the way, SHOULD be secured in his/her home - from down the street.
For the family to blame the Hendrix guy IS understandable - from their grief and horror. But from a legal standpoint, it’s like I said.
If he FOLLOWED the guy out the door, or shot him as he was going away, then yes, it needs to be looked at closely.
If he shot him because the guy was advancing on him and wouldn’t stop, that’s pretty cut and dried.
It’s horrible, it’s tragic, and it sucks. But it is what it is.