Judging

I was at a murder scene last week. Two people burst into a home overnight and shot a man in the chest. Early on police weren't saying much as they investigated, and there was talk it must have been a random home invasion.

But based on what neighbors said, I could have jumped to conclusions about it. What do you think if you are told the following things:

"That's a rental."

"He had a lot of people over all the time. People coming and going."

"There was a party there earlier that night."

I didn't report much of that, because it seemed to imply to me there was some sort of criminal behavior going on. But I felt I may have been judging unfairly -- homeowners are often suspicious of rentals in their neighborhood, even though there may be wonderful people inside. Maybe this guy had a lot of people over because he was really friendly. Maybe it was a perfectly nice party.

Then later that day police told us they had found out in their investigation that the murder was drug-related. So does that mean all those above statements really do apply to crime? Police have told us that in home invasions the suspects often have a connection with the victims. But random shootings do happen.

I am still glad I waited for more facts from the police. Otherwise to me it would have sounded like I was saying something along the lines of "Neighbors say this man lived in a rental and had lots of people coming and going so he must have been killed because of drugs."