Joe Horn: Meet the man behind the gun

Houston Chronicle ^ | December 16, 2007 | Cindy Horswell and Ruth Rendon

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To his grandchildren, the 61-year-old Pasadena homeowner is simply "Papa Joe."

To longtime friends, Joe Horn is an "average Joe" who leads a rather quiet, dull life as a retired communications computer manager on the outskirts of Houston.

But since being catapulted into a national debate for fatally shooting two men he says were burglarizing the house next door, Horn is called everything from a "hero" to a "murdering vigilante."

All the furor forced him into seclusion as news media nationwide clamored for interviews and one anonymous caller even made a death threat against him. But now for the first time, he has decided to break his silence and answer by e-mail some questions about his life posed by the Houston Chronicle.

"(The shooting) has been devastating on my family," Horn wrote. "Words cannot describe how bad this has been."

Horn, who had been letting his attorney and personal friend of four decades speak for him, added, "It has caused untold grief on all of us. I feel for my daughter and grandchildren."

Horn lives in a two-story brick home with a pool in the Village Grove East subdivision of $200,000-plus homes. The neighborhood is so peaceful and quiet that he was first alerted to the Nov. 14 afternoon burglary by the sound of glass breaking.

"He was on his computer fixing a music program when he heard the shattering," Horn's attorney, Charles Lambright, said in a telephone interview.

Neighborhood residents now are trying to replace the horrifying memory of two bodies — sprayed with shotgun pellets sprawled in two front yards — with a much merrier one of twinkling lights and holiday decor. One body was found in the yard of a Pasadena police officer

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If he shot first, and then phoned 911, this wouldn't be a story.

[NewCenturions]

"To his grandchildren, the 61-year-old Pasadena homeowner is simply "Papa Joe." To longtime friends, Joe Horn is an "average Joe"

To the rest of the world, he is "the good neighbor", the guy who saved other homes from being burglarized by these bums!

[PeteB570]

This is a good lesson and reminder to everybody that 911 calls are recorded.

What you say will be picked apart in detail by the press and courts. The information could be presented to the lowest IQ “peers” the state can round up.

What only takes a few moments in real life will take days to pick through in the courts.

I’d never make it to the jury on this one.

[marktwain]

“Whether Horn is viewed as a hero or a vigilante, Lambright sees him as an average Joe from any small town in America.

“He’s quite a boring guy, really,” Lambright said. “He’s gotten fat, lazy and old.”

Lambright is Horn’s lawyer.

This is what the elite really fear about guns. They level the playing field. I think Joe is anything but average, but there are many, many “Joes” who will step up to plate if they need to.

I bet crime in Houston has dropped considerably in the last couple of weeks.

[marktwain]

Too bad he didn’t have the CCW training. He would have learned to be more careful about his phrasing to the authorities.

[marktwain]

“New Black Panther leader Quanell X, who has led two protests in front of Horn’s home, believes Horn should be indicted for murder but says he would not be shocked if he isn’t. “It won’t be the first time a white person shot a black person and he is not indicted,” he said in a telephone interview.”

No mention of the fact that Quanell X’s 10-15 demonstrators were met by a counter-demonstration of 500 of Joe Horn’s neighbors.

[TLI]

Horn went outside to see what was happening and found himself within 7 feet of and face-to-face with the suspects, authorities said.

They were on his property after he witnessed them commit a felony on his neighbor’s property. That is not AT ALL what the initial descriptions by the media were trying to portray.

[Godwin1]

Why do these ditzy reporters even talk to Quannel X? He wasn’t there. He’s just a racist who hates white people and believes they are legitimate targets for black criminals.
Horn is a hero. The fact that he did not follow the advice of a police dispatcher is irrelevant. The dispatcher’s job was to get the police there in time to capture the criminals. He failed and the police failed. Perhaps one reason they resent Horn and leak selective negative information about his conduct.Horn did what the police failed to do and embarrassed them.