If the defense can get admitted into evidence that the couple thought the door was stuck and the husband admits he was trying to force the door to open AND assuming the defendant has a very normal record of middle class living… the defendant will take a plea deal. Minimal time or probation.

It is NOT a case of someone strange knocking on a door with a pizza in their hand. It is also not a case of a deranged lunatic on meth or abusive ex-husband kicking in the front door. A homeowner was asleep when someone tried to force their way into his home. It’s absolutely in the middle. He shouldn’t have fired the shot but couldn’t have known about the danger.

Do your children (if you have any) also have foul mouths?

Oh, wow. The moderated comment was approved. That was quick and unexpected! Now, pretty please bring back the comment edit function!!

The problem isn’t that he shot through the door. The problem is that he had no idea who he was shooting at, and he had no way of knowing that the person on the other side of the door was a threat. Yes, he should be charged. Yes, he was an idiot. Using this as an example to say that you can never shoot through a barrier is likewise idiotic.

Silver & Simons (FBI BAU)
“Making Prevention a Reality: Identifying, Assessing, and Managing the Threat of Targeted Violence” (U.S. Secret Service / FBI synthesis) — synthesis finding: in most targeted violence cases, others observed concerning behaviors beforehand; many subjects made direct or indirect threats.

Cornell & Sheras; Fein et al.
Studies of workplace and school violence (various empirical reviews) — multi-study reviews find roughly 60–80% of attackers display warning behaviors (threats, leakage, planning indicators) observable to others prior to the act. Example synthesis: Cornell et al., studies on “leakage” in school shootings.

Some things that are “not remotely the norm”: Being struck by lightning, surviving a plane crash, getting an unexpected large inheritance from a distant relative, etc.

I had to leave out the one link I was going to show for the previous comment. The mod system here wouldn’t accept it. So no links. Search yourself if you want to find them. All of these comments are based on actual research (not feelz).

many attackers engage in planning and leave communications (threats, manifestos, videos) before events; authors report high rates of pre-attack communications in their sample (varies by study/sample).

Lankford & Madfis
“Do Violent Mass Murderers ‘Plan’ Their Attacks?” (2018, Behavioral Sciences & the Law) — case analyses showing

Lankford & Madfis
“Do Violent Mass Murderers ‘Plan’ Their Attacks?” (2018, Behavioral Sciences & the Law) — case analyses showing many attackers engage in planning and leave communications (threats, manifestos, videos) before events; authors report high rates of pre-attack communications in their sample (varies by study/sample).
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10990798