Several FAILs in one instance:

[PegLeg45]

This happened one county over on Christmas night.

http://www.walb.com/story/16400667/irwin-police-shootout-results-in-no-injuries-and-no-charges

Irwin County, GA -
A misunderstanding led to a frightening Christmas night shootout between an Irwin County man and a deputy.

Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt.
    
The deputies responded to a home where William Elrod IV was staying after silent burglar alarm at the home sounded.
  
It was almost a Christmas Day tragedy. Deputies thought a house was being broken into. Elrod thought the officers were burglars. That is when five shots were exchanged between Elrod and a deputy.

The security system on the house on Evergreen Drive sent out a silent alarm on Christmas night. William Elrod IV was in the house and he punched in the wrong numbers by mistake. That is when Irwin County Deputies Gene Mitchell and Michael Owens came out. They thought the house had been burglarized.

"What they saw when they looked in there through the glass on the back porch, it looked like a TV was laying on the bed and some guns were out of the gun cabinet and that sort of made them think also," said Irwin County Sheriff Donnie Youghn. "But, they were hollering 'Sheriff's Office,' both of them."

But, Elrod did not know the alarm had sent the signal to deputies. He did not expect anyone to be coming to the house.

"When the deputies came around with the flashlights and were hollering Sheriff's office and everything, I think the person in the house actually thought they were being broken in to," said Sheriff Youghn. "That's when he fired a shot at the deputy. And of course, the deputy returned fire."

Five shots were fired in total. One shotgun blast from Elrod and four shots from the deputy. Police say Elrod did not intend harm.

"The person inside maybe panicked or got tunnel vision or whatever," said Sheriff Youghn. "I think it was innocent on his part that he fired at the officer."

One of the bullets grazed Elrod's neck, but he was not seriously injured and did not get medical attention. The deputies will not see any disciplinary action.

"It's just one of those circumstances," said Sheriff Youghn. "You know, the officer returned fire. They were doing their job. The officer certainly did not do anything wrong."

Investigators say no charges will be filed.

The GBI investigator we spoke with said he had never seen anything like this where the homeowner thought police were burglars. And deputies thought the home was already being burglarized.

The Irwin County Sheriff says he'll look at this case and determine if he needs to change the way his deputies respond to silent house alarms.

Thankfully, there were no injuries (just dirty underwear).

[tombogan03884]

From the article it seems the Sheriff's office is looking into "lessons learned".
What lessons are there for us.
Maintain your awareness, "people were moving around his house yelling"
Pay attention to WHAT they are yelling.
Any others stand out ?
What lead every one to realize this was a "blue on blue, Friendly fire, situation ?

[alfsauve]

The GBI investigator we spoke with said he had never seen anything like this where the homeowner thought police were burglars.

Wow! What short memories the GBI have.   How about the case of Kathryn Johnston, 92, who thought the invading police officers were drug dealers trying to rob her.  That would be the same as burglars, right.   The case was 5 years ago, but it's still very much on the forefront since the evidence the officers used to justify the no-knock raid was FALSIFIED.  AND drugs were planted in the house afterwards to justify the raid.   Kathryn, wasn't as lucky though as she died in a hail of bullets.   Several officers were injured by "friendly fire".


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathryn_Johnston_shooting

[JC5123]

Who was the alarm company?
Isn't it SOP for them now that they call the homeowner when an alarm is tripped?
Just think that a phone call to the homeowners cell could have saved everyone from a potentially deadly situation.

[1911 Junkie]

Who was the alarm company?
Isn't it SOP for them now that they call the homeowner when an alarm is tripped?
Just think that a phone call to the homeowners cell could have saved everyone from a potentially deadly situation.

You can set your alarm different ways. There is one that if you put your code in (say the real code but the last number is off by one) it sends a silent alarm to the company and acts like it was disarmed at the residence. It would be useful if someone grabbed you right outside your house and forced you to turn the alarm off. A phone call from the alarm company would not be good in that situation.

[Sponsor]

[2HOW]

A teachable moment............

[Solus]

Homeowner did a poor job.

1.  He was not in immediate danger.  They were outside and yelling.  It was time for a 911 call, not gun shots.

2.  He obviously didn't have a a good ID of his targets.  Deputy's wear uniforms. And, as Tom pointed out, it would have been a good idea to listen to what they were shouting.

3.  (and this applies to the Peace Officers too) He missed.  Turns out it was a good thing that everyone missed..well, except for a grazing pellet from the homeowners shotgun.  But the rest of the shot and 4 shots from the deputies went somewhere else.

(actually, I'm being picky....hitting moving targets is not an easy task)

The only thing the homeowner did right is he grabbed a shotgun as  his choice of weapons.


The Peace Officers....

While I don't know what works out there and don't know what their SOP is, it seems to me to be a good idea to announce you are Peach Officers while staying out of sight of the "alleged" perpetrator. 

I guess they didn't know if any innocents were inside and didn't know how many bad guys there might be, so them acting without backup seems warranted.   

[fightingquaker13]

As far as the deputies yelling "Police"!? Well, I can do that too, it doesn't make it so, and I guarantee its what I would be hollering if I were a home invader. Lucky for the homeowner that the cops were willing to let this one go.
FQ13

[ronlarimer]

Homeowner did a poor job.

1.  He was not in immediate danger.  They were outside and yelling.  It was time for a 911 call, not gun shots.

2.  He obviously didn't have a a good ID of his targets.  Deputy's wear uniforms. And, as Tom pointed out, it would have been a good idea to listen to what they were shouting.

3.  (and this applies to the Peace Officers too) He missed.  

I agree with all of these AND I would understand if he was prosecuted.

You must know what you are shooting at!

The police officers should be commended for stopping after 4rds, but they need to be sent back to the range for additional pistol training.

[Ping]

FQ is correct in calling out "Police" and it being a bad guy. We just recently had a home with the front door kicked in and the bad guys yelled that they were the "police". Scary days. No uniform, then I do not trust them.