Brandon Watson said he was protecting his family when his wife heard noises in the back yard on January 3, 2013: “She said, ‘oh my gosh, someone is in the backyard.’” The noises got closer and then she heard the clicking of the backdoor handle.”

In a neighborhood where weapons are everywhere, Brandon Watson didn’t hesitate to grab his own legally purchased gun. It was a decision with lingering repercussions.

…

“I announced myself, ‘Who is that? Who is that? I have a gun.’ And as soon as I said that, two red laser beams were on my chest,” Watson said. “so I looked at the red laser beams on my chest, and I fired a warning shot.”

….

“They said, ‘we just got news you shot at an officer.’ I said, ‘An officer? Nobody came to my door. What do you mean an officer? I didn’t know there were any officers in my backyard,’” he told WAVY.com.

via Man charged for shooting when cops went to wrong house | WAVY-TV.

Mr. Watson was charged, tried for misdemeanor reckless handling of a fire arm, convicted, he appealed, a mistrial was declared and went  to a jury trial where in 47 minutes of deliberation he was found not guilty.

This case is different from the usual “got the wrong house because the snitch gave any address to please a cop who in turn did not bother to check the accuracy of the info.” It was a hot call, under stress and I believe the mistake was an honest one.

But what chafes me is the after-action CYA of charging somebody just because they are afraid of a lawsuit, which is the only reason Mr. Watson had to go through this ordeal.  I believe that a simple explanation and apology would have had much better results Public relations-wise but instead the Portsmouth PD ended up wasting taxpayers’ money and harassing an innocent man making him waste his money.

At least it is good to see that the community is no longer accepting that behavior and siding with people being railroaded in the name of maintaining the appearance of a strong and just police department.