This was in Texas? Why did the guys have to break in at all? They should have just taken the sofa, refrigerator, 12” sylvania, and engine blocks that were on the porch.
And the shooter? What kinda shotgun? You get no style points for a Mossy 500 or such. Now if he’d had a cut down A-5 a la’ Clyde Barrows, or a 16 gauge M-12 you’d have to acquit.
Atleast with three shots fired, he didn’t break the law on having a gun for Migratory burgular species plugged.