The homeowner allegedly was the one who started shooting and over what - some arsehat bureaucrat slugs mowing his lawn! Yes, the city enfocing lawn maintenance is ridiculous and probably should be considered a violation of his property rights but shooting at them for doing it does seem just a it over the top. Yet, you ask was it worth escalating to shooting the guy. The police, if the ariticle is correct, were not the ones who escalated the situation to a shooting event - the homeowner was the one you should be asking about as in - was it worth him escalating it to shooting at the mowers? Sounds to me like he had some screws that were way to tightly screwed into his brain. There certainly were better alternatives to address the situation than shooting at the guys doing the mowing.
