Lessons Learned: Don't Hunt for a Criminal After Calling 911

 This lesson comes from a Daily Mail article titled: "'It wasn't me': Footage shows millionaire tech entrepreneur's final words after being fatally shot by a trigger-happy cop while defending his home from a suspected burglar." The gist of the story is that about 12:30 AM on November 15, Rajan 'Raj' Moonesinghe apparently believed that there was a burglar inside his house, although there was no evidence of an intruder. For some reason, Moonesinghe believed the best course of action was to call 911, grab his AR, and then go outside to peer back into his house through windows and doors to see if he could spot the supposed burglar, eventually firing a couple of times into his house just as officers were arriving on the scene. The police, of course, promptly shot Moonesinghe before they could even finish ordering him to drop his gun. Literally: "Drop the" ... *bang, bang, bang, bang* ... "gun!"

    So, what can we learn from this incident? 

1. First of all, if your judgment or reasoning is impaired or you are just plain stupid, you shouldn't be handling a firearm. Although there is nothing in the article to indicate that Moonesinghe was using medications or intoxicated, in the video you can hear him talking to someone--presumably the non-existent "intruder"--before he let off his two shots. Plus the fact that he was outside his house and shooting inside. These facts suggests to me that his judgment or reasoning may have been impaired, whatever the reason for it. 
2. Consider using a more discrete firearm if you have to exit your house. Moonsinghe was not in a situation calling for a rifle. He was not under attack by a group or gang; and he did not live in a rural area where he might be shooting longer distances at a predatory animal. He was in a suburb with houses crowded close together. I've noted before that if I am investigating the proverbial "bump in the dark" outside the house, I prefer a handgun that can be concealed in a pocket or under a jacket for the very reason that if someone sees me they won't see the firearm and call the police or shoot me because I'm armed.  
3. Don't be acting like the "bad guy" when the police arrive. Most of the time, this bit of advice is couched in terms of what to do with your firearm when police arrive or are expected to arrive: things like putting the firearm down or reholstering it before police arrive. Moonsinghe might have lived if he had followed this advice. But there was more than just the fact that he had his firearm. As noted above, he was standing outside his house and had just barely shot his firearm into the house as the police rolled up. Unfortunately, the video doesn't show how Moonsinghe acted when he turned toward the police with his rifle: it shows the rifle in a low ready and then the video freezes or has been edited (although the audio continues) so we can't see if it stayed that way or he raised his weapon.
4. Finally, police and firearms don't mix. I'm not talking about police competence with firearms. I'm talking about the fact that as soon as you or someone else calls 911, you (or whomever called 911) has just invoked a bunch of armed people showing up at your house ready to do violence, and they will do that violence to you if you in any way look frightening or threatening. So, absent some exigent circumstance like trying to protect loved one in some other part of the house, your checking out your house or yard, room clearing, or whatever you want to call it, ends as soon as you or someone else calls 911. At that point, you transition to waiting for the police to arrive, preferably next to the telephone with the dispatcher on the line and lights on so officers can see clearly and not acting like the "bad guy" (see point 3).