No car in the driveway, shades drawn, and newspaper in the driveway.
They can only speculate. For them to make a statement of what the burglar thought is wrong. It seemed to have been done to disparage the lawful homeowner that used a firearm for self defense. The tone of the police was like, well, yeah the guy was legal to shoot the burglar but the burglar did not intend to break in to an occupied home. Is this an attempt to mitigate the circumstances and make the burglar sound like a better person? Perhaps undeserving of being shot? That is the slant I got from the article.
From the article: "Snohomish County Sheriff's deputies said the burglar broke into a house on the 10500 block of 21st Avenue Southeast at 11:45 a.m., believing no one was home. The suspect was confronted by the homeowner, who was armed, and after a confrontation, deputies said the suspect was shot and killed."
The above sounds like the deputies are trying to make the homeowner look bad. Here this poor unsuspecting burglar broke in, expecting to find easy pickings. Then, the big bad homeowner "confronted" him. During this "confrontation, the big bad homeowner, "who was armed", shot the unsuspecting burglar that just chose his home because the homeowner was too lazy to get out of bed, open his shades, and get his paper off the driveway.
This is sloppy journalism and inappropriate comments by the deputies. They cannot say with any certainty what the burglar thought, and truthfully, who the he!! cares?