This story seems a little odd. There's a lot of relevant information missing from it. What was his motive? His criminal history? Why he would go to the attic if he was merely a burglar since most valuables would be in the living quarters? Why wouldn't he just want to get in and get out? Did he hear noises? Why would she need to shoot him five times if she had a gun and he didn't? The story is extremely short on any kind of details.
Shhh... people aren't done politicizing it yet. You're adding logic too soon.
People should learn (from experience if nothing else) that it's important for people to ask relevant questions, especially the police.
For example, I remember a story from a few years ago. A man pulled up to a driveway or a parking lot in his vehicle (a pick-up, I believe) to find his wife apparently desperately exiting a man's vehicle in a state of distress (and in a state of undress). She yelled rape. The husband quite understandably pulled out his gun (which he had a legal right to carry because he had been issued a concealed carry permit) and shot the other man, killing him in the process. It was later discovered that the man who was killed was engaged in a consensual sexual relationship with the wife who apparently panicked when she saw her husband approaching. The woman was later convicted of murder.