He took his gun, but left his iPhone. Peter Khill questioned on why he didn’t call 911 the night he fatally shot Jonathan Styres

Among other things inside the scattered nightstand were a box of 12-gauge Winchester shotgun shells and a key to unlock a gun's trigger-lock mechanism.

Atop it? A fully charged iPhone.

Peter Khill picked the former after hearing bangs on his driveway and seeing a light on in his truck in the wee hours of Feb. 4, 2016.

Without hesitation, clad in nothing but boxers and a T-shirt, he loaded his pump-action shotgun and headed for his rural driveway off Highway 56, where he stealthily approached a man rummaging and leaning into his GMC pickup truck.

It was Jonathan Styres.

Khill testified Wednesday he yelled a command at a slightly bent-over Styres - Hey! Hands up!"- before Styres turned to him with his hands stretched and raised to less than chest height, as if he was holding a gun."

Seconds later, Khill blasted Styres with his shotgun twice, killing him almost instantly.

Khill testified he made that decision to grab his gun and head for his driveway because he felt it was his only choice.

I felt there was an urgent, imminent threat ... and I needed to get control."

Under cross-examination Thursday, however, assistant Crown attorney Sean Doherty argued Khill's deadly decision to grab the gun was just one of many that were available to him that night that wouldn't have ended with Styres dead.

While Khill testified during examination-in-chief that he wanted to initially detain Styres, Doherty pointed out he brought no tools outside to do such. While Khill testified he believed there could've been other people on his property, Doherty highlighted he never searched the perimeter of his home before confronting Styres. While Khill testified he worried for his safety and that of his now-wife's, who waited in their bedroom during the incident, Doherty noted he left her alone and never locked the backdoor he exited the house from. While Khill said he thought Styres was holding a gun when he raised his arms, Doherty suggested Styres could've been raising them to surrender.

This back-and-forth - of what Khill could've done but didn't do - went on and on Thursday.

Some of the suggestions Doherty posed were obvious. He said Khill could've called the police several times during the lead-up to the shooting - he had a phone on his nightstand; he could've turned on the interior and exterior lights of his home to show people were home; he could've fired a gunshot from his window as a warning. All of those, Doherty said, could've scared off Styres from the property.

The situation that resulted in him being shot, that situation was brought on by the plan you made to go out with the gun. Do you agree with that?" Doherty asked Khill.

The result was not part of the plan at all," Khill responded.

But the result happened, right?"

Tragically, it happened, yes."

Khill, who at times during Thursday's cross-examination appeared frustrated, said calling the police, turning on the lights or firing off a warning shot never came to mind in the lead-up to the shooting. The general theme in his answers was he was acting instinctively - drawing on his experience as a former part-time military reservist - to neutralize what he saw as an imminent threat.

But Doherty suggested a different motivation for the shooting.

He honed in on one big reason why Khill was on heightened alert that night: Twice in the week prior to the shooting, Khill testified his then-girlfriend and now-wife, Melinda Benko, told him she thought someone was trying to unlock their backdoor while she was home alone.

The reason you wanted to get (Styres) so quickly was because you were angry about what your wife reported to you about the door locks, right?" Doherty asked Khill.

No, I was scared," Khill said. I was worried. I was not angry."

Sebastian Bron is a reporter at The Spectator. sbron@thespec.com