Teen Killed After Accidentally Entering Neighbor's Home

A Virginia neighborhood is grappling with the "ultimate tragedy": the death of a 16-year-old boy killed by a homeowner when he accidentally entered the wrong house early Sunday—one just two doors down from his own. Caleb Gordley was grounded for not cleaning his room but sneaked out Saturday night to go to a party, reports the Washington Post. He then had to sneak back in, so his friends helped him climb in through a back window. But he'd been drinking and picked the wrong house, which looked similar to his own. When the burglar alarm went off, the homeowner found Gordley on the stairs. He says he warned the teen to leave and fired a warning shot, but when Gordley didn't stop, the homeowner shot and killed him, an official says.

"They have the exact same staircase as us, the exact same carpet. Caleb clearly thought he was in his own house," says the boy's father. "He probably stumbled around and was just trying to go to his room." Friends and family say Gordley wasn't a troublemaker, but an athlete with many friends who typically obeyed his parents and did well in school; in a statement the family acknowledges he made a tragic "mistake." Locals say the homeowner is a good neighbor and a longtime volunteer firefighter, and friends add that the two families were barely acquainted. No charges have been filed, and the Post notes that Virginia legal precedent is on the homeowner's side. (More Caleb Gordley stories.)