Recordings of Horn's exchange with emergency dispatch indicated that he was asked 14 times not to interfere with the burglary, because police would soon be on scene.
On November 14, 2007, Joe Horn, 61, spotted two men breaking into his next-door neighbor's home in Pasadena, Texas.
On the 911 tape, he is heard confronting the suspects, saying, "Move, and you're dead",[3] immediately followed by the sound of a shotgun blast, followed by two more.
"[5] Police initially identified the dead men in Horn's yard as 38-year-old Miguel Antonio DeJesus and 30-year-old Diego Ortiz, both residents of Houston.
[3] Torres and Ortiz were carrying a sack with cash and jewelry taken from the home of Horn's next-door neighbor.
Torres had three identification cards from Colombia, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic, and had been previously sent to prison for dealing cocaine.
The medical examiner's report could not specify whether they were shot in the back due to the ballistics of the shotgun wound.
[7] Pasadena police confirmed the two men were shot after they ventured into Horn's front yard.
[citation needed] The incident touched off protests, led by Quanell X, leader of the Houston chapter of the New Black Panther Party (NBPP) that were met by counter-protests from Horn's neighbors and other supporters.
[1] Joe Horn took an early retirement from AT&T and moved in with his daughter, Rhonda, and her husband in Kentucky.
"[14][15] On June 30, 2008 a Harris County grand jury cleared Horn by issuing a no bill after two weeks of testimony.
[17] 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.
"[17] On a Sunday in early December 2007, Quanell X and dozens of members of the group New Black Panther Party planned a march through Pasadena, Texas to protest.
Joseph Gutheinz, a Houston attorney and member of the National Republican Lawyers Association, said: "I wonder if Joe Horn were black if he would be free tonight or in the Harris County Jail."
"[18] The Glenn Beck Program had conditionally taken up Horn's defense, but allowed that "property is worth killing over.