While there are some similarities, there are a lot more examples of recent home invasions that carry with them a multitude of lessons.
Here are some good examples:
1) Unexpected door knocks from 9pm to 6am should only be attended when armed. Ignoring them is not an option, for non-response may result in an intruder trying to kick that or another door in, or break and enter through windows.
2) Home invasions may be criminals or may be police, so identify your targets. Practical note: gunmen of all kinds tend to look for targets as standing, from head to waist height. If you can be in a prone position, through a doorway as they enter the other side of a hall, you will have maximum shooting advantage, as they will have to look down, move their gun down, and have a smaller target area than you. Never illuminate your position.
3) If a dog sacrifices itself attacking them, good dog. But remember that it is just a dog. If they kill your dog they have just killed a dog. If you kill them, it is homicide.
4) If you need to shoot once, you probably need to shoot more than once. Do not pause to “damage assess”. In the immortal words of Tuco, “When you have to shoot, shoot. Don’t talk.”
5) A big secret of liability law is that injured people always get much bigger settlements and damage awards than dead people. If a criminal survives, it may cost the taxpayers $2m to try and imprison them. Bullets are cheap, and mean no more victims from that criminal.
Police are generally trained to keep firing until the bad guy goes down. That is prudent for civilians as well. If he's standing with a weapon, keep firing. If he's down and still has a gun in his hand, keep firing (he can shoot you dead while laying down just as easy as standing up).
I'm thinking you might not be from Texas.
Any time one human shoots another in this country and kills that person, it is a homicide. The question is if the shooting is murder, manslaughter, some other charege or self-defense.
If my dog sacrifices himself for me, it means the aggressor is very dangerous to me, and in close proximity to me, and is a huge threat to me. And it will be justifiable homicide.
Oh, and ALL door knocks should be answered. We have had a lot of break-ins lately - all during the day when they think folks are gone. My kids are instructed to get me if I’m home (i work out of the house), and if not yell things like “Dad - someone’s at the door!!” Then ask who it is through the closed door and if it is not a known neighbor with name or relative to NOT open the door. “No Dad - I don’t know who it is!!!”
Cops - they need to see the squad car and the person in uniform - and then they can talk through the upstairs window.
Our cops (bored in this quiet suburb) say to call 911 for ANY suspicious activity. Even if it is someone trying to sell something door to door to call 911 and they are not on the ‘approved” list! (There are three vendors allowed to sell door to door and they have an official city emblem on their clipboard. I still ignore them).
Just last week a few blocks from us a 15-year old girl was home from school playing x-box and ignored the knocks on the door. When the sliding glass door in the back came crashing in she went into the hallway to see what was going on. The guy took one look at her, swore, and ran back out. She unlocked the front-door and ran to a neighbor’s where they called 911.
The guy must have seen her leave, and they saw him run back into her house! In two minutes he was gone again. Cops from three towns were searching our neighborhood.
At the meeting the other night about the rash of burglaries one of the cops said the high price of gold seems to be a factor. Lots of nice electronics are left behind (i-pads on counters, etc.) while the master bedroom is sacked looking for jewelry.
Makes sense I suppose.