The Next Stand Your Ground Case

From the New Orleans NOLA:
A 14-year-old boy remained in critical condition Friday after being shot in the head by a homeowner who said he thought the teen was trying to break into his house. But police said the teen was unarmed and did not pose an "imminent threat" when he was shot and have charged the owner with attempted second-degree murder.
The family of Marshall Coulter said the teenager could move only the right side of his body a little, but not the left. Doctors told the family that if Coulter survives, he would likely be severely brain damaged.
Coulter's family acknowledged the teen's history of burglary arrests but said he had never used a gun.
Police said that Coulter did not pose a threat to the homeowner, Merritt Landry, who works as a building inspector for the Historic District Landmarks Commission.
Police said the teen was near Landry's vehicle when he was shot about 2 a.m. Landry's friends said the vehicle was in the driveway behind a gate just a few feet from the house's backdoor.
According to an NOPD arrest warrant, Landry shot Coulter from 30 feet away, evidenced by the distance between the blood found on the ground and the single bullet casing outside Landry's house in the 700 block of Mandeville Street.
Landry told police that he approached the boy from his front yard, near his vehicle. As he grew closer, he said, the boy made a "move, as if to reach for something" -- possibly a weapon -- so Landry shot him, the warrant states.   http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2013/07/marigny_homeowner_shooting.html#incart_m-rpt-2
Ok, you have a kid who scaled a 6ft fence at 2:00 in the morning.
The homeowner had no idea if the kid had a weapon.
But the homeowner had no idea if the kid had a record.
And this from his brother:
"He would steal -- he was a professional thief, sure," David Coulter said. "But he would never pick up a gun, not in a million years. He was too scared to aim a gun at the grass, let alone aim it at a person. No way. Before he'll ever pick up a gun, he'll be your friend first.
"He's still a little boy," the brother said. "Who pulls a trigger on a 14-year-old? What if it was your little brother or your sister? How would you feel?"
If it were my kid, I'd be pissed, no doubt, but then I wouldn't raise my kid to do stupid things, like staying out until 2AM, hopping a fence and robbing places.
Unless something else major shows up, I think the homeowner is innocent of shooting the punk kid.
He could have handled it better but that is Monday morning quarterbacking.
Apparently, the thug kid was scoping out the shooter's house at least 2 times prior to the shooting.
He jumped a 6 foot fence.
He made a move that the homeowner thought was threatening.
The homeowner shot the thug because he felt scared for his safety.
If this was a cop, the cop would have gone home at the end of the day and the cop would be cleared.
Regular citizens should not be held to higher standards than the police.