He knew that the only other person authorized to be in the house was in bed with him. Turning on the lights may have been useful for identifying the intruder, but would also illuminate THEM to a potentially-armed intruder. In their situation, I would see no need to give away an advantage to an intruder.
Odds are that if they could see her enough in the dark to shoot her, then she could see them. If she meant them harm she could have done it in the dark as well as the light. In most cases the advantage of illumination goes to the one who controls the switch. In this case he would have the added advantage of the gun and the light switch.
If all papabears in history shot first in the dark and then identified their targets later, think of all the baby bears that would never have known Goldilocks. How Grimm would that be???
Strange responses. Maybe it’s because I have kids at home and adult kids, who turn up when least expected. Or, maybe it’s because I’ve made the mistake of accidentally walking into someone’s apartment in broad daylight thinking I was entering a friends - both of which looked exactly alike, were next door to each other, and had their front doors open. The guy inside was definitely not listening and wanted to shoot me, the only thing saving me being my fast feet.
I’m not saying this guy deserves legal action, only that he is really lucky to have shot an intruder he doesn’t know. In any case, I’ll bet he still regrets taking that shot in the dark and not seeing that he was facing nothing more than an unarmed, drunk girl he could have easily overpowered without risking lives.
I will never discharge a weapon unless I can see what I’m shooting at. My safety is important to me, but not important enough to risk the lifetime regret of shooting an innocent by taking shots in the dark. Way too many opportunities for a mistake. This is just plain old gun safety and common sense. I’m an avid shooter, 2nd amendment purist, all for the castle doctrine, and once wore a Marine uniform, so not new to firearm use.