Seeing a dark figure approaching him, he fired

"Seeing a dark figure approaching him, he fired"

by digby

And this guy is allegedly trained:
A Virginia sheriff's deputy mistook his 16-year-old daughter for an intruder early Tuesday and shot her as she sneaked back into their home, authorities say.

After alerting 911, the deputy then crashed his car while racing her to the hospital, and emergency responders finished transporting her for treatment at Winchester Medical Center, the Frederick County Sheriff's Office told WHAG-TV.

The teen was shot once in her torso and was listed in stable condition Thursday. She suffered no additional injuries when her father, Loudoun County Sheriff's Deputy Easton McDonald, hit a barricade.

The shooting happened about 3:30 a.m. Tuesday while McDonald, a 13-year veteran, was getting ready for work, said Frederick County Sheriff's Capt. Donnie Lang. The home's alarm system indicated a door of the attached garage had been opened, and McDonald grabbed his personal handgun to investigate.

Seeing a dark figure approaching him, he fired.

I guess that'll teach her to sneak out at night.

This happens more often than people realize:

A Colorado Springs father fatally shot his teenage step-daughter Monday, saying he thought she was a burglar. Prior to the incident, police received a call about a burglary in progress. But when they got there, they found the 14-year-old with a gunshot wound. She was taken to the hospital and died soon after, according to CBS Denver.

The incident is the latest tragedy involving the use of deadly force to protect the home. And it is one of several incidents in which a parent has killed their own child after they mistook them for a burglar. Last September a Connecticut teacher shot and killed his 15-year-old son after his neighbor called to say she thought she saw a robber in the front yard. Just a few weeks after that, a retired Chicago police officer shot and killed his 48-year-old son after he came in the back door late one night. And an off-duty police officer killed his son last July while the two were on vacation in upstate New York, after he told police he believed him to be an intruder.

I think this says it all:
Although Colorado does not have a Stand Your Ground law, it does have its own version of what is known as the Castle Doctrine, which allows homeowners to use deadly force to protect their dwelling without a duty to retreat. The law was dubbed the “Make My Day,” law after the 1983 Clint Eastwood film ”Sudden Impact,” in which Detective Harry Callahan — “Dirty Harry” — aims a gun at a criminal suspect and says, ”Go ahead, make my day.”
These people think they're Clint Eastwood:


And they're really Clint Howard.