‘Course, if you’re a Sacramento Sheriff’s deputy you can use deadly force to protect your property in the middle of the night if, for instance, a car thief tries to steal your car. A sheriff’s deputy did just that last year a couple of miles from where this latest incident occurred. IIRC, the deputy left a gun in the glove box and when the car thief picked it up, deputy dawg opened fire, killing him. Would this trick work for your average Joe Blow citizen? I doubt it.
Great timing as that kind of event happened the same night in another Sacramento suburb, see: http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/149686.html