You're right, it's not a movie, so stop assuming you can see what happened, or that the perp was a logical actor. This is one big reason gun nuts won't fucking listen to people like you: you assume perfect rationality on behalf of the perpetrator in any refutation you can cook up. You assume that because the guy is there for a TV that that's all he would do; that he is a rational actor with needs and goals that he will achieve and leave. You do the exact same thing right wingers do: You put your ideals into your assumptions without actually trying to understand the parties involved. It just so happens that right wingers are obsessed with sexual violence for some reason.

99% of the time this is what happens: The perpetrator breaks in to steal something of value. They're already dealing with panic, anxiety, fear, already rooted in the material conditions that push them to resort to robbery for survival. They realize someone else is in the home. Those same material conditions force a choice on an already compromised actor: fight or flight. There is no "Well, I'm caught, time to apologize and walk away." There is "I NEED THIS. I'M HERE BECAUSE I NEED THIS. I NEED THIS AND THIS PERSON IS IN THE WAY OF THAT." This isn't a value judgement: Anyone who has anxiety and has had a breakdown because of it knows this feeling.

But that feeling on an already compromised person results in 2 outcomes, always: Fight or flight. No robber in the history of humanity has decided anything other than "I need to run away" or "I need to retaliate." Now, knowing that, switch to the victim. You know the robber is going to either fight or flee. But you, too, are a compromised actor. You, too, have a fight or flight response. And the bitch is, you won't have the wherewithal to put together the flight response unless you've already done drills. Even then, that's assuming it's just you; If you decide to flee, are you going to have time to gather other people in the home to make that same choice? Are they going to make that same choice? Are they even going to execute that same choice competently? No. Both parties in this scenario, whether by US culture, poverty, desperation, or panic, are predisposed to choosing fight. How that plays out is down to just the tools available.

I can think of three serial killers in my own city who broke into people's homes to rape and murder them in my lifetime. Here's my take: if someone breaks into my house to steal my TV, they value that TV over their own life. I have a perfectly good car to steal from in the driveway if they want a low risk option.

You don't break into homes at night to rob them. Robbers break in during the day. Rapists and murderers break in at night.