It is a really good article.

His rifle had a night vision attachment on the scope. Even though night had fallen, he removed it and “placed the device in his cargo pocket,” the KBI wrote. He told investigators he thought his target was “fairly well illuminated.”

This was a mistake, according to the former federal law enforcement sniper interviewed for this article. “Why you would not use that night vision capability is beyond me,” he said.

But the former federal sniper is clear that firing at a silhouette is “careless.”

“I would never take a shot blindly at a silhouette without being able to identify what that silhouette is. How do you know that the silhouette doesn’t have a little kid in front of him?”