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Video: Horn Re-Enacts Shooting For Police

POSTED: Thursday, July 3, 2008
UPDATED: 6:03 pm CDT July 3, 2008

A video of homeowner Joe Horn showing Pasadena police what happened when he shot and killed two burglary suspects was released, KPRC Local 2 reported Thursday.

Pasadena police shot the video on Nov. 14, 2007, six hours after Horn, 62, killed burglary suspects Hernando Torres, 38, and Diego Ortiz, 30, by shooting them in the back at about 2 p.m. as they ran from Horn's neighbor's house in the 7400 block of Timberline Drive.


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    "I had my shotgun on them, OK? And I said stop," Horn said on the videotape.

    Horn walked police through the events that left Ortiz and Torres dead in a 15-minute tape.

    He explained that he had been working at his computer when he heard glass shatter outside.

    "And I looked out here and there was two black guys breaking out a glass over here," he said.

    Horn grabbed his shotgun and called 911. He told the operator the two men were getting away and ignored the dispatcher's instruction to stay inside.

    "I said, 'I'm going downstairs.' 'Don't, don't, don't go downstairs, he said. I've got police coming.' I said, 'Man.' I said, 'I'm going downstairs,'" Horn said. "I told them, I said, 'I'm going outside.' What my intent was to go outside and see if I could tell what kind of car they was in."

    Horn told police he was not expecting to find the men in his front yard.

    "They were right there, right there," he said.

    Horn then said he leveled his shotgun and told them to stop.

    "I put the gun up to my shoulder. I was telling these people, 'Don't move.' Then all of a sudden, they jumped and I shot it. I was here by myself," he said. "When I wheeled around, I seen another figure and pulled the trigger. It happened like … (shakes head)," he said.

    Horn told police that night that he believed the two men intended to kill him.

    "I thought I'd been scared in my life, but I ain't ever been scared like this. I ain't never been scared like this," he said.

    Pasadena police videotaped the interview with Horn, and a second one later at the police station.

    Because grand jury proceedings are secret, it is not known if grand jurors saw the videos, but they did hear from Horn himself. He testified for about 90 minutes.

    On Monday, a grand jury declined to press charges against Horn for the shootings.

    The two men who were killed were Colombian nationals in the United States illegally. Torres had previously been deported for drug dealing.

    Pasadena police said they were found to be carrying jewelry and about $3,000 cash taken from the neighbor's home.

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