This was murder, plain and simple. They killed him right after he opened the door. If this had been a criminal that knocked on a homeowner's door & killed the homeowner after he came to the door - the criminal would be charged with murder & would be going to jail. In this case, the person/people that shot & killed this innocent homeowner should also be charged with murder & should all be going to jail. But, they probably won't even get a slap on the wrist. Typical.
Also note that if someone is pounding on your door in the middle of the night/early in the morning & you haven't done anything wrong, it's safe to say that many people wouldn't trust them if they say they're the authorities. I.e., there have been cases of criminals knocking on people's doors in the middle of the night & lying about being the authorities - in order to lure people outside so they can rob/kill them. So, it makes sense that the homeowner(s) didn't trust what these people said - especially considering the circumstances - i.e., the lateness of the house; the fact that the homeowner(s) hadn't done anything to justify this, etc.
And, making a mistake like going to the wrong house in the middle of the night when you're investigating a domestic disturbance?! Terrible. It's one thing if a private citizen goes to the wrong house (yes, that's another thread). But, going to the wrong house with guns drawn - when you should have made 100% sure you had the right address ahead of time, especially given all of the technology available to us these days (GPS, etc.)?! If you watch the body cam footage, they were confused about whether or not they were at the right house after the fact - i.e., after they had already gotten there & had knocked on the door. The correct address should have been something they were 100% certain of before going to the house. Wow.
And, this is obviously not the first time something like this has happened.
These people remind me of my old mailman who kept misdelivering my mail to an obviously wrong address. However, the obvious & substantive difference here is that lives are at stake & an innocent person was murdered because of this horrific mistake.
The scary thing is that this could (and does) happen to anyone, even if you're 100% innocent of any wrong-doing - as in this case. Horrible, but not at all surprising.
