Aftermath of a Nightmare

If you haven't read my post last night. I suggest you do so before continuing.

As many of you speculated, the post was inspired by this news story. I took creative license to embellish here and there and my post may not reflect, with perfect accuracy, how things went down that night. What we know for sure, though, is that the homeowner, realizing that his home was being broken into, shot the intruder through the sliding glass door. The intruder took off on foot and was discovered, dead, fifty yards from the home he was trying to break into.

It's a terribly tragic story for all parties involved - especially when you learn that the intruder was only a 19 year old boy. I saw his picture in the article and was struck with a little emotion. The kid doesn't look like a bad kid. He looks like somebody who made a stupid decision - caught in the wrong place at the wrong time - and paid for his life because of it. But as the homeowner, what can you do in a situation like that? How would you react? It's impossible to say that the homeowner over-reacted. It's also impossible to say that he didn't. Some moments in life have no defined black and white boundaries. We can only hope that in those moments we'll refrain from doing something we'd regret, and on that note I can't imagine what regret the homeowner must feel right now, even if he did feel justified in firing the shot last night.

I, like many of you who commented, would have tried to scare the intruder off before shooting him. And if I were to shoot, I'd have shot him in the leg - reducing the chances of death to something very minuscule. Then again, it's easy to say that as I sit, calmly, in my chair. In the heat of battle, in those moments of desperation, palpable fear, and split-second thinking, I'm not sure how I'd act.

Rest in peace, Kyle Poulton.

-Barry