BAD FORM: Girlfriend Hospitalized After Man Fails to Identify Target

SWANZEY, NH — A man is facing some serious charges after he shot and seriously injured his girlfriend in the middle of the night when he mistook her for an intruder, The Keene Sentinel reports.

When he woke up to suspicious noises, grabbed his defensive firearm, and when he saw a silhouette down the hallway, opened fire.

As The Keene Sentinel reports:

Matthew Brow, 26, faces two charges of first-degree assault for allegedly shooting Stephanie Teves, 27, on Feb. 23. Prosecutors allege Brow fired two shots from a handgun. One struck Teves in her right arm and the right side of her abdomen, while the other struck the left side of her abdomen, court documents state…

The shooting occurred in the early-morning hours of Feb. 23 at 25 Cedar Road, according to the affidavit written by Swanzey police Detective Mary Wilson… When Wilson interviewed Brow, the detective wrote, Brow said he and Teves had fallen asleep together around 10 p.m. Later that night, he said, he awoke when he heard footsteps, according to Wilson.

“Brow stated that he immediately grabbed his firearm, which he keeps by the side of the bed,” Wilson wrote, “and as he turned and looked in the hallway all he could see was a black silhouette.”

Brow said he yelled “Hey!” as he fired two shots from his handgun, according to the affidavit. He said he called 911 once he realized it was Teves.

Teves later told police that she went to the bathroom, got to the top of the stairs, heard Brow yell “Hey” and was shot twice, Wilson wrote. After she was shot, Teves was taken to Cheshire Medical Center in Keene with life-threatening injuries, then transferred to the Lebanon hospital, where she had surgery, according to the affidavit.

All of this — all of this — would be avoided if Brow had taken the time and energy to properly identify his target.

I can certainly understand the pressure to act quickly in what could be a home defense scenario — but if you have to abandon judicial movement to move quickly, slow your roll. It’s how mistakes like this go down.

If you think you need a flashlight on your home defense platform to be sure of your target, don’t hesitate. It’s not just your safety you’re looking out for — it’s everybody in your house.

Stay safe out there, folks.

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