Horrible stuff, makes me want to wake up my boys just to hug them.
I take exception to all this talk about "well I've been fucked up before and have never mistaken my house." So what? Why exactly is your body's reaction to excessive amounts of alcohol fit to serve as a metric for the rest of the populace? I've seen 5ft women weighing maybe 110lbs down beers and shot after shot of tequila, then go play volleyball for hours in the sun and not look trashed at all. One of my college roomates was gigantic, but couldn't handle his drink if his life depended on it and would turn beet red in the face for the rest of the night after 2 beers. Using my huge ex-housemate as a baseline to judge all other reactions and tolerances to alcohol seems stupid, no?
Why is it so hard to believe this kid was just really messed up? I'd like to think that warning shot would have clued him in. In an altered state of mind it's common to imagine sounds, did he freeze when the shot fired and thought "Did I just hear a fucking gun?" while the shooter took the calm reaction as an indication of intent and promptly sent the next one downrange? Was it really a warning shot or just the first round fired which missed? If you're worried for family in your own home facing an intruder, I'm not sure why you'd give that person the benefit of getting a bearing on you and thus the chance to respond with their own weapon. Recon by fire and using a gun to communicate are the tactics of idiots for the most part, certainly in this situation.
The neighbor, while acting appropriately given the circumstances, is going to be haunted about this for the rest of his life. The father is probably destroyed.
People have done much stupider things when trashed, I think that alone should be reason enough not to be so fucking cold about this teen checking out at 16.