Nov. 16, 2007, 9:48PM
911 tape traces deadly shootings by Pasadena man
Minutes before he shot and killed two burglary suspects, a Pasadena man ignored repeated orders from a police dispatcher not to go outside with a shotgun.
Police today identified the dead men as 38-year-old Miguel Antonio DeJesus and Diego Ortiz, 30, both of Houston.
On a 911 tape released Thursday, a dispatcher is heard asking Joe Horn to stay inside his home until police arrived. But Horn, who had called police about 2 p.m. Wednesday to report that he witnessed two men break into a neighbor’s home, told the dispatcher he planned to “kill” the suspects.
“I’m not going to let them get away with it,” said Horn, who reported being inside his home in the 7400 block of Timberline looking out a window. “I’m gonna shoot. I’m gonna shoot.”
For approximately six minutes, the Pasadena police operator told Horn to remain in his home and repeatedly discouraged the 61-year-old man from taking his gun outside.
“Stay inside the house and don’t go out there. OK?” the operator told Horn in calm tones. " … I know what you’re feeling, but it’s not worth shooting someone over this. OK?"
Charles Lambright, Horn’s attorney, said Thursday that the audio recording suggests Horn was afraid for his own safety.
“Just because he went outside doesn’t mean he went outside with the idea of shooting them,” Lambright said. “All I can see is a concerned homeowner who was scared for his own safety and, if he was some kind of nutcase, I don’t think he would have called 911. His intention was to get police out there.”
Pasadena police said it would be up to a Harris County grand jury to decide if Horn committed a crime. Charges had not been filed Thursday and Horn was not taken into custody.
“Usually, things like this take a little while to be presented to us,” said Assistant District Attorney Lynne Parsons. “We would want the officers to contact witnesses and collect evidence.”
The owners of the home that was burglarized could not be reached for comment. On the audio recording, Horn tells the operator that he did not know them very well. But, he states that he was upset that the men appeared to be burglarizing a home in broad daylight.
‘Not worth killing someone’
Texas law allows people to use deadly force to protect their own property to stop arson, burglary, robbery, theft or criminal mischief at night.
Horn is heard on the recording telling the operator that he has a right to protect himself and under a new law that went into effect in September.
The law, passed earlier this year, gives Texans stronger rights to defend themselves with deadly force, but Sen. Jeff Wentworth, a San Antonio Republican, has said he does not think it would apply in this case.
“Property’s not worth killing someone over. OK? Don’t go out the house. Don’t be shooting nobody,” the operator told Horn shortly before he left his home and fired at least two shotgun blasts at the men.
Investigators were taking measurements outside Horn’s home in an upper-middle class Village Grove East subdivision near Fairmont and Center.
Bag of cash recovered
Pasadena Police Capt. A.H. “Bud” Corbett said Horn was cooperative with officers at the scene and later made a statement at the police station.
The white bag one of the dead men had been carrying contained a large amount of cash, apparently taken from the house, Corbett said.
Two windows in the back of the house had been broken, he said. One was a regular window, but the other was glass blocks. It was the breaking glass that alerted Horn, Corbett said.
Police have not found the families of the dead men. One had identification indicating he was from Puerto Rico, the other had documentation indicating he may have been from Puerto Rico, Colombia or the Dominican Republic, Corbett said.
Both men were shot once at a range of less than 15 feet with a 12-gauge shotgun.
