Drunk Student Fatally Shot After Entering Wrong Apartment

[matcom]

<snip>

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. -- An intoxicated man who was shot to death last week in an apartment mistook a neighbor's unit for his own and broke in when his key wouldn't work, authorities said.

Hector Soto, 21, had recently moved to the apartment complex and had been out celebrating his upcoming graduation from a trade school, his stepfather, Robert Ward, said Monday.

Soto was "fairly well intoxicated" when his friends drove him home early Friday, said San Bernardino County Sheriff's Sgt. Tom Bradford. All the buildings in the complex look the same, he said.

Soto got into the wrong apartment through an open front window and headed to the bathroom, where he encountered the resident, a 65-year-old state prison counselor, authorities said.

They scuffled and the resident, thinking Soto was an intruder, shot him once. The shooter will not be charged, Bradford said.

"It's tragic. A real mess," he said. "I don't believe Soto intended to hurt anybody."

http://www.wftv.com/irresistible/5975203/detail.html

[JVS]

1. I blame the person doing the dropping off. When a friend is really...

hammered, you haven't delivered him to home unless you've seen the person go into the proper door.

[Shell Beau]

3. Well he got him home. What they do from there isn't in your control.

[JVS]

5. That's the point. They didn't get him home

When a friend is truly loaded, you need to lead them right to, and sometimes even through their own door.

[Shell Beau]

8. What if the driver was as loaded? It is likely.

It is not the driver's fault. The dude chose to get that drunk. He should know where his own apartment is. Come on. I have been plastered enough to do something like that before (haven't done it though) and I always take responsibility for what I did or may have done while intoxicated. Would a really good and cautious friend take him to the door? Probably, but maybe not. What if it was a cab? :shrug:

[JVS]

11. Nope. rules for dropping off are that you make sure people get to...

the destination. These don't change. Cabs are different, they are hired to take one to a street location.

[Shell Beau]

12. Well, those are your rules. They are good rules. But not

everyone knows or adheres to those rules.

[JVS]

13. Those who do not adhere to my rules are in grievous error!

[LisaL]

4. They are not responsible for him. He is an adult.

[JVS]

6. The drop is not complete until you see them enter the right door.

[LisaL]

7. I didn't realize the drop rules were official.

Is there a drop handbook? Do you need to take drop exams to be allowed to perform the drop?

[JVS]

9. Its simply a matter of being a good friend.

But yeah the rules are official. when you take someone somewhere you make sure they get in.

[Shell Beau]

2. That happened to my g-ma.

She lives in an apartment complex and these drunks came in her apartment thinking it was theirs. Her dead-bolt was broken, but the apartment was locked. She has a gun and she had it in her hands. But, luckily she didn't use it. It scared the shit out of her, she had been dead asleep. She hasn't had the best of luck. Her other apartment was shot up. Some guy kept calling her threatening that he was going to kill her (a crooked cop that lived down the street pissed b/c she called BFI on him for all the garbage he had lying around). She came home one day and her apartment had over 20 bullets through it. :o She got the gun and then moved. :o Poor grandma!

[AngryAmish]

10. A guy I went to school with was blind

His roommate came home drunk. Blind guy mistook him for an intruder. Blind guy shot him dead.