... Murder requires the establishment of intent to kill. ...
Actually, deaths caused in the commission of a crime are murder under the laws of many states, without any intent to kill (e.g. death in a hit-and-run by the get-away car fleeing the site of some other crime).
If that were the case in Kentucky, the question would be whether the cops were committing a crime (most likely a civil rights violation) by staging a home invasion on the wrong home on the basis of a no-knock warrant. As the justifiable outrage at police misconduct in this case was very intense, it seem that that principle has not been applied here, as the officers have not been charged with murder, and the whole thing has to be put down as yet another pointless tragedy caused by no-knock warrants and the folly of turning drug abuse into a crime problem, rather than treating it as public health problem.
Perhaps the precedent established here, that use of deadly force against people breaking into your home is justified, even if they turn out to be police officers, will make police more circumspect in their use of no-knock warrants, though I doubt it.
