One of these days, police are going to go into the "WRONG" wrong house, and it will get ugly.

Sorry but if my kids are home and you bust into my house at 4:00 am in the morning, you're going to be shot. And this is America which is EXACTLY why your doors should be locked overnight. Even if they were screaming police or whatever, there would be so much confusion that it would be hard to control that situation. Who's to say that a criminal wouldn't falsely identify themselves in the same situation?

Are your doors always locked when you are home? Ours aren't.

 

When I was growing up, we NEVER locked the doors. I never even had a key to my parents' house (and still don't).

 

Now, our doors are almost always locked. My wife won't even go to bed unless all of the windows are locked, which I find a little ridiculous.

No charges warranted in this case against home owner...based on early info.

It will depend on exactly what the officers were told by dispatch as to what their liability is, if they were acting in good faith based on info they had no charges on them either.

I always lock my doors

This goes back to the no knock warrants , which I don't know if this was a case of that. But I've always had a problem with them because mistakes have happened like this.

 

Some home owners have had property aged and the government wouldn't reimburse the cost.

 

I know the defense for these type of entrances is saftey of the police but I just don't like it. I think someone should be given the opportunity to turn themselves in peacefully. If they don't want to then you bring hell down on them.

 

Also if a mistake is made like this someone in LE needs to be held accountable.

This reminds me of what could have been a serious problem a couple of years ago. There was a drunk driver that was wanted for a hit and run at a local bar with the same name as me (3 total in this town). Two sheriff deputies came to my home out in the country to arrest me. I always keep my garage door cracked for the dogs to go in and out of and the deputies went into my garage looking for the car involved in the hit and run and beating on the door. Lucky for me, I was in Las Vegas. So there was no way I was drunk in Danville! My father who's lives next door asked what was going on, and was told that they where here to arrest me! He than explained to them that I have been out of state the entire week. The two deputies decided to get on the radio and the dispatcher gives them another address for another person with my name. Now this all happened at 3:00 am and if I was at home could have gotten very ugly if I was woke up and found 2 men in my garage!

 

Upon my return I talked to the sheriff and gave him a very BIG piece of my mind! I truly believe that had I been home my life or the deputies life would have been in jeopardy that night.

Are your doors always locked when you are home? Ours aren't.

 

We don't lock doors, but we aim center mass and pull until it clicks....I suggest calling ahead

I understand the owner's dog was also shot and killed.

 

First off: My doors are always locked if we are inside..no exceptions. I would do anything possible to avoid shooting an intruder as well as letting them leave. However, if someone bursts into my house, my dogs don't ask questions and are going after them. If they start shooting my dogs, I am emptying my magazine.

Will be interesting to hear what exactly happened.

 

Not sure you can charge someone in a case like this.

 

Also, how is a neighbor not able to give an address for the house? That seems really fishy.

I couldn't tell you my neighbors address. A lot of time the numbers skip between numbers. I could only take a guess at my neighbors numbers.

This reminds me of what could have been a serious problem a couple of years ago. There was a drunk driver that was wanted for a hit and run at a local bar with the same name as me (3 total in this town). Two sheriff deputies came to my home out in the country to arrest me. I always keep my garage door cracked for the dogs to go in and out of and the deputies went into my garage looking for the car involved in the hit and run and beating on the door. Lucky for me, I was in Las Vegas. So there was no way I was drunk in Danville! My father who's lives next door asked what was going on, and was told that they where here to arrest me! He than explained to them that I have been out of state the entire week. The two deputies decided to get on the radio and the dispatcher gives them another address for another person with my name. Now this all happened at 3:00 am and if I was at home could have gotten very ugly if I was woke up and found 2 men in my garage!

 

Upon my return I talked to the sheriff and gave him a very BIG piece of my mind! I truly believe that had I been home my life or the deputies life would have been in jeopardy that night.

 

They can't go into your garage w/out a warrant. That wasn't an exigent circumstance. Vigilante stuff right there.

If I link to an online legal treatise outlining Fourth Amendment jurisprudence citing specific case law are you or anyone else going to read it?

 

:wave:

If a person is in their home, and they have no reason to believe that they have ever done anything wrong that will have the police run into their home, I can't blame the homeowner for shooting. As was mentioned earlier on this thread, someone who is not an officer can also yell that they are the police and freeze the homeowner until it's too late.

 

What I do question is, when the police found that the door was unlocked, did they look to see if it was forced opened? Or did they just assume that they would go in since it was just unlocked?

I will say this is a really tough situation. I feel badly for all involved. That is why I would shoot someone as a last resort even if at all. An example from my home:

 

Shortly after we moved to our farm which is set pretty far off the road, so pretty isolated, I traveled to Hungary for business. When I arrived at my connection in Amsterdam and turned on my phone, I immediately received texts that our alarm system had been activated just minutes before...roughly 1:30 AM at home. Being very concerned, I phoned my wife. She answered the phone and explained what had just happened. She had not fully closed the front door after letting the dogs out before she went to bed, and she didn't engage the deadbolt.

 

She went to bed closing the bedroom door with the dogs inside the bedroom. The north wind later blew the front door open activating the alarm. At the time we only had one siren at the far end of the house, and she sleeps heavily, and did not hear it. She was awoken by the dogs going crazy at the bedroom door (also she left her cell in the kitchen when she went to bed). The alarm had gone off, and she didn't answer the call from the security company, so they sent the Franklin County Sheriff who entered the house due to the situation. I am glad the dogs were locked up... and as they woke my wife up, she was then able to realize the alarm was going off, and the sheriff was there announcing his presence. Good news is that all bad scenarios were averted, but things could have happened differently with bad results. This scenario is always in my mind and a reason why I would give every opportunity to avoid pulling the trigger on an "intruder".

 

The "other" situations are now also remedied to avoid a recurrence.

I posted several months ago about my friend in Seattle area whose apartment was broken into by the police while they were sleeping and they have YET found out why. I was told then by people on this board that the police didn't owe any explanation and that the outrage they and I felt was unjustified.