In uk.railway Richard twisted the electrons to say:
If he had fired anywhere other than straight along at body height (as
anyone who has ever picked up a gun knows is incredibly dangerous) he
would probably have got away with it.

Maybe he should've taken the advice of a (IIRC) New Zealand Chief
Constable who said if you had to shoot someone who broke into your house
the very next thing you should do was fire a shot into the ceiling/floor
so you can claim you fired a warning shot ...

Of course, in certain US states I believe you don't want to fire a warning
shot as legally that is taken to show that you where not out of options
short of lethal force.

He didn't, he shot two people in the back, killing one of them.

Well at least one of them won't be repeat offending then, and maybe the
other one will think twice before "breaking & entering" again ... Yeah,
unlikely I know ... :-(
--
These opinions might not even be mine ...
Let alone connected with my employer ...