Joe Horn

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Undated photograph of Joe Horn.
Joe Horn is a native Houstonian currently residing in Pasadena, TX, who became widely known in 2007 for the events surrounding the shooting of two burglars whom he had caught in the act of robbing a neighbor's home.

Horn took an early retirement from AT&T in 1998 and later that year, moved in with his daughter, Rhonda, and her husband in Kentucky to help raise his grandchildren who call him "Papa Joe." After his daughter was widowed in 1998 the remainder of the family moved to Houston and Horn went back to work so his daughter could take care of the children. When Rhonda re-married, she and her husband purchased a home and asked Mr. Horn to move in. In 2003 he accepted and moved in once more.

An only child, Horn graduated from Sam Houston High School in Houston, Texas in 1964. He went to work as a 7-Eleven store clerk immediately after high school. Two years afterwards, he started work in the communications industry, eventually working his way up to a computer program manager for AT&T before finally retiring in 2003.

He was proficient with guns because of hunting, which he lost interest in years before the 2007 shooting incident in Pasadena[1]

Contents

Shooting controversy

The incident

The incident, which became widely known as the "Joe Horn shooting controversy", refers to the events of November 14, 2007, in Pasadena, Texas, United States when local resident Joe Horn shot and killed two men he caught in the act of robbing his neighbor's home. Publicized recordings of Horn's exchange with emergency dispatch indicate that he had little reservations about shooting and/or killing the burglars upon confrontation and said as much to the 911 operator who took the call (see the transcript below). Despite this, Horn maintained his restraint until he saw that the criminals were in the process of exiting his neighbor's home, and approaching Horn's home, before taking any action himself. By this time, Horn had been on the phone listening to an operator discourage him from exercising his rights (Texas Penal Code § 9.41., § 9.42., and § 9.43.) for nearly a full seven minutes, with no police presence at the scene.

On the 911 tape, he is heard confronting the suspects, saying, "Move, and you're dead",[2]. They failed to heed his advice and were both shot dead as a result.

911 call transcript

The following transcript of the 911 call made by Joe Horn to the Pasadena, Texas 911 emergency service on November 14, 2007 has been constructed by hand from a recording of the call. It is not an officially released document provided by the Pasadena Sheriff's department or any other official agency, and should not be construed as such.

Investigation and case

As it turned out, there was a police presence at the scene that day: a plain clothes police detective responding to the 911 call had arrived at the scene before the shooting — and witnessed the escalation and shootings while remaining in his car (his thumbs weren't going to twiddle themselves, now, were they?)[2]. His report on the incident indicated that the men who were killed "received gunfire from the rear".[3] Police Capt. A.H. Corbett stated the two men ignored Mr. Horn's order to freeze and one of the suspects ran towards Joe Horn before he angled away from him toward the street when he was shot in the back. Pasadena police confirmed that the two men were shot after they ventured into his front yard. The detective did not arrest Horn.

Despite the efforts of the parade of usual suspects, from gun-grabbers to race hustlers, to paint the two dead men as innocent victims of a racist vigilante empowered by an unjust law, the facts did nothing to shore up the accusations. If anything, they reinforced the understanding that Horn had done exactly the right thing.

Police initially identified the dead men in Horn's yard as 38-year-old Miguel Antonio DeJesus and Diego Ortiz, 30, both of Houston of Afro/Latino descent. However, DeJesus was actually an alias of Hernando Riascos Torres, 38.[2] They were carrying a sack with more than $2,000 cash and jewelry taken from the home. Both were convicted criminals from Colombia who had entered the country illegally, and were members of an organized burglary ring in Houston.[3] Police found a Puerto Rican identification card on Ortiz while Torres had three identification cards from Colombia, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic, and had been previously sent to prison for dealing cocaine and was deported in 1999.[4]

All the evidence in Horn's favor not withstanding, the DA decided to take the case to a grand jury anyway — likely in an effort to head off the expected media circus orchestrated by the usual race-baiting suspects on both sides of the fence. On June 30, 2008, Joe Horn was cleared by a grand jury in the Pasadena shootings.

The shootings have resulted in debate regarding self-defense, Castle Doctrine laws, and Texas laws relating to use of (deadly) force to prevent or stop property crimes. The illegal alien status of the burglars has been highlighted because of the U.S. border controversy over illegal immigration to the United States.[5]

Reactions

Local

The incident touched off protests, led by the ever-opportunistic Quanell X, that were met by counter-protests from Horn's supporters and which saw the Black Panther leader and his "entourage" shouted down and run off by the same tactics he had frequently employed himself.[6][7][8][9]

National

The Glenn Beck Program has conditionally taken up Horn's defense, but allowed that "property isn't worth killing over."[10]

Death threat

What can be construed as a death threat was made anonymously to the District Attorney in which the following was said: “You better indict Joe Horn, and you better find him guilty. Because if you don’t, somebody is gonna kill him on the outside, and if he go to prison he gonna be killed on the inside … We waiting on him in prison, and we waiting on him on the outside.”[11][12]

Grand jury

On June 30, 2008 a Harris County grand jury cleared Mr. Horn by issuing a no-bill after two weeks of testimony.[13]

Reaction to no bill

Quanell X said he is meeting with civil attorneys to discuss the "next legal move" (read: next act in the three ring circus of racial grievance hustling). He said he planned to lobby lawmakers to change the Castle Doctrine, which he believes is racially motivated.[14] He went on to say, "This was a wild and out-of-control Western-thinking, gun-toting man who saw the opportunity to be judge, jury and executioner, and Harris County let him get away with it. But we’re not going to let him get away with it."[14]

Joseph Gutheinz, a Houston attorney and member of the National Republican Lawyers Association, raised concerns in a New York Times story that parroted Quanell X's position, Gutheinz said: “I wonder if Joe Horn were black if he would be free tonight or in the Harris County Jail.” Speaking of the Harris Country Grand Jury system, Gutheinz said: “It’s a sea of white faces that doesn’t look anything like the county.” [15]

It would seem that for some people, criminals are victims, victims are bloodthirsty vigilantes and white people are an always-racist, ever-convenient scapegoat. One thing about the whole affair is curiously certain: had Joe Horn been black and the burglars white, it would never have even occurred to anyone to throw accusations of racism into the witches' brew of gun-grabbers' twisted logic.

See also

External links

References

  1. ↑ Horswell, Cindy; Rendon, Ruth (2007-12-17). "The man behind the gun," Houston Chronicle.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Horswell, Cindy "Pasadena police present DA with report on Horn," Houston Chronicle 2007-12-18
  3. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named NYTHorn
  4. ↑ Joe Horn cleared by grand jury in Pasadena shootings
  5. ↑ "The Deaths of Two Illegal Aliens Near Houston" The O'Reilly Factor - Talking Points 2007-12-06
  6. ↑ Video of event on Youtube with Quanell X's comments
  7. ↑ Quanell X Chased Away by Joe Horn Supporters in Pasadena
  8. ↑ "Pasadena Protest Over Slain Burglars Heats Up," Associated Press, Houston Chronicle 2007-12-03
  9. ↑ KTRK.com's video
  10. ↑ Discussion on the Glenn Beck Program.
  11. ↑ Russell, Rucks "Horn Death Threat Caught on Tape," khou.com 2007-12-10
  12. ↑ DA's office: Caller threatened Joe Horn's life
  13. ↑ Joe Horn cleared by grand jury in Pasadena shootings
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Quanell X: Grand jury system is 'broken,' unfair to minorities
  15. ↑ {http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/01/us/01texas.html?ex=1372651200&en=849acdaef3a9ceac&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink} Grand Jury Clears Texan in the Killing of 2 Burglars. New York Times, July 1, 2008.
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