Here is how the situation should be handled:

#1 a young inexperience officer (especially a white one) should not be alone on patrol on 3rd shift in a poor black high crime neighborhood. He should have a partner with him.

#2 he should just roll down his window and say: " hello, Officer Smith here working the graveyard shift in your neighborhood, is everything ok?"

Gunn: "yes"
Smith: "do you live around here?"
Gunn: "yes, I am on my way home, I work night shift too - I live right there in that house"
Smith: "ok, have a good night and be careful, we have a lot of burglaries around here lately"
Gunn: "ok"

Then all Officer Smith has to do is watch the man go in to his house. End of encounter. No shooting and no news story.

If he doesn't and keeps walking past the house he said he lived in, then Officer Smith investigates further: "hey, you said you lived in that house but you walked past it, why did you tell me a story?".....etc. Emphasis on investigation - as the law/Constitution does not allow the police to arrest someone for mere lying about such a thing. And at that point it would be a good time to call for back up to investigate further.

#1 a young inexperience officer (especially a white one) should not be alone on patrol on 3rd shift in a poor black high crime neighborhood. He should have a partner with him