Grand Jury Clears Texan in the Killing of 2 Burglars

Then the tape recorded Horn warning: "Move and you're dead!" Two quick shots can be heard on the tape, followed by a pause and then a third shot.

Pasadena police have said a detective in plainclothes had parked in front of Horn's house in response to the 911 call, and saw the two men before they crossed into Horn's front yard.

Police believe that neither Horn nor the burglars knew an officer was present.When Horn confronted the men in his yard, he raised his shotgun to his shoulder, police have said. However, the men ignored his order to freeze.Authorities have said one man ran toward Horn but had angled away toward the street when he was shot in the back just before reaching the curb.

Ortiz and Torres died a short distance from Horn's house.

A news release from the city of Pasadena read, in part,

He did nothing wrong.

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/17/national/main3517564.shtml?source=mostpop_story

 

Then the tape recorded Horn warning: "Move and you're dead!" Two quick shots can be heard on the tape, followed by a pause and then a third shot.

He said move not boom.

No charges for Joe Horn

 

Nah, that's what makes you tough in Texas - shooting unarmed people when their back is turned to you.

Real cowboy.

 

Either way, to move is not a reason to shoot, even under the code from Texas

 

Grim I agree with the Grand Jury decision based on what I read and heard. The man was within the law. I take it you would mot have shot the robbers for stealing from your neighbor, but he did. He was within his rights.

 

nah, it only makes you a coward.

 

I think it took courage to walk outside. Those guys could have been packing heat. He had no idea if they were armed or not.

 

Considering the 9/11 operator told him over and over not to go, considering the said he was going to kill them before he even went out it's pretty damn apparent he was out for blood not for protecting anything.

No I would not shoot 2 guys in the back if they were not causing an imminent danger, especially when the police were on the way and the police '9/11' dispatcher was telling me not to.

Within his rights, yet the code surely doesn't appear to be so. Just because he was not indicted does not equal him being within the legal frame work, sometimes a sketchy situation falls through the cracks.

 

It is not courage to go outside with a shotgun and shoot 2 guys in the back, far from it.

 

Courage is going outside unarmed when theres 2 guys with shotguns, not going out armed when theres 2 guys running away.

 

you can have him, and one day when you go outside your house and he mistakes you for a burglar, you can take one in the back too.

lets see if your family praises him for being a vigilante neighbor.

i mean vigilant...

 

He would be a neighbor that would risk his life to protect you and your property. Some people will coward and turn a blind eye. Joe Horn is not a coward.

Would you protect your neighbor?
Would you courage or coward?

 

i would do what i could to protect my neighbor.
that doesn't include murder, cause thats what the charge would
be here in New Hampshire.

when a 911 dispatcher tells you:
"Stay inside the house and don’t go out there, OK?"

then you do just that.

if someones life is in danger, then you do the right thing and grab a gun, you kill the bastard and your home in time for cornflakes.

 

That's the problem I have with the law. Law enforcement and the courts exist for a reason, a good reason. You can't just let(well, actually you can, I think the state should be allowed to decide) yahoos run around enforcing or dishing out their own justice.

 

A coward is afraid of all dangers, real or imaginery ones.
Cowards face countless times where some sort of backbone is needed as do we all. Cowards run from these daily challenges and don't have the backbone to face them. They must live with this emptiness of not accepting life's challenges and to this they are dead to life itself in many countless ways and instances. The brave man faces his challenges and does not experience the emptiness of cowardness.


Justice has prevailed.

 

a loaded shotgun helps too.

 

A coward runs. A brave man will step out of the house, not knowing what danger he will encounter.
In Texas they step out of the house. The brave man faces his challenges and does not experience the emptiness of cowardness.

Justice has prevailed.

 

This isn't a war film, and Horn isn't John Wayne in The Longest Day, Homebiz. This is the case of a guy who decided to take the law in his hands - unnecessarily so - appearing to have been spoiling for the chance to "git sum" and murder two men running away, if the preponderance of reports are to be believed. The wistful histrionics cannot change the reality.

I am now firmly convinced this pinhead felt he had carte blanche to go turkey shooting. And that is premeditated murder.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/falkenberg/5865045.html

Precisely my point. Jkjazz didn't like my example of two teens in halloween costumes taking a shortcut through the neighbor's lawn. There is a very real possibility some moron like Horn will get the notion of "gittin sum" and murder again. And again.

The so-called "Castle Law" stems from an 1850 predecessor, apparently.

******

Ya think, dumbass? Too bad the "experiment" in soul searching were two lives, whether any of us would have a beer with the two dead or not.

 

It does not matter what you think, I think or anyone else thinks. The Grand Jury looked at the facts and said Horn should not be charged. THE STATE OF TEXAS made the right choice. Justice has prevailed. You can not make up the law as a juror you have to go with the facts. There was not enough evidence to go to trial. The Grand Jury made the right decision. We can't even argue that. The shooter did nothing wrong. Texas law was fulfilled.

Justice has prevailed.

Why didn't the plain clothes cop rush on the scene and intervene? Why did he remain in his car?