Texan Kills Thieves: Hero or Homicidal?

Good thing he didn't kill a cat, he might be in trouble in Texas.

I don't believe Mr. Horn should be charged for shooting the thieves. If criminals were afraid they might be killed while committing a crime, maybe the crime rates would go down.

I had a similar situation occur, with someone attempting to enter my home on two separate weekends. I live in a rural area, so it would take the sheriff's department a while to respond to a 911 call. You'd better believe I was on the other side of my door waiting with a loaded gun if the guy had made it into my house. I believe the only deterrent to this man not breaking a window to enter my house were my 2 boxers growling and barking, knowing a stranger was attempting to enter the house, and he decided it wasn't worth facing them.

Now, I understand Mr. Horn shot the men while they were on his neighbor's property, but they could have very quickly made him a victim, and the law there says a person can shoot someone on the neighbor's property if they feel life is threatened. The man trying to enter my home ended up successfully entering a neighbor's home, fortunately they weren't home. He made off with several thousand dollars worth of items and as far as I know was never caught nor identified.

Renee wrote:

I don't believe Mr. Horn should be charged for shooting the thieves. If criminals were afraid they might be killed while committing a crime, maybe the crime rates would go down.
I had a similar situation occur, with someone attempting to enter my home on two separate weekends. I live in a rural area, so it would take the sheriff's department a while to respond to a 911 call. You'd better believe I was on the other side of my door waiting with a loaded gun if the guy had made it into my house. I believe the only deterrent to this man not breaking a window to enter my house were my 2 boxers growling and barking, knowing a stranger was attempting to enter the house, and he decided it wasn't worth facing them.
Now, I understand Mr. Horn shot the men while they were on his neighbor's property, but they could have very quickly made him a victim, and the law there says a person can shoot someone on the neighbor's property if they feel life is threatened. The man trying to enter my home ended up successfully entering a neighbor's home, fortunately they weren't home. He made off with several thousand dollars worth of items and as far as I know was never caught nor identified.

See thats the problem... they almost never get
caught. I heard that its about 20% of the time
they get caught. Thats like never!!!! And when
they do get caught... they serve about a year in
prison cause of good behavior... then they go
back out and do the same thing again. And you
never know, they might come back and try to terrorize you for turning them in. So I dont understand these people that say, OMG!!!!! Mr.
JOE HORN IS A MURDERER!!!!! OMG!!!! OMG!!! OMG!!!
JOE HORN IS JUST A REDNECK!!!! OMG!!!! OMG!!! OMG!!!
From my point of view Mr. Horn did the rite thing!

Renee wrote:

I don't believe Mr. Horn should be charged for shooting the thieves. If criminals were afraid they might be killed while committing a crime, maybe the crime rates would go down.
I had a similar situation occur, with someone attempting to enter my home on two separate weekends. I live in a rural area, so it would take the sheriff's department a while to respond to a 911 call. You'd better believe I was on the other side of my door waiting with a loaded gun if the guy had made it into my house. I believe the only deterrent to this man not breaking a window to enter my house were my 2 boxers growling and barking, knowing a stranger was attempting to enter the house, and he decided it wasn't worth facing them.
Now, I understand Mr. Horn shot the men while they were on his neighbor's property, but they could have very quickly made him a victim, and the law there says a person can shoot someone on the neighbor's property if they feel life is threatened. The man trying to enter my home ended up successfully entering a neighbor's home, fortunately they weren't home. He made off with several thousand dollars worth of items and as far as I know was never caught nor identified.

I hope you called the cops and reported the attempted burglary at your residence both times.

Renee wrote:

Now, I understand Mr. Horn shot the men while they were on his neighbor's property, but they COULD HAVE very quickly made him a victim, and the law there says a person can shoot someone on the neighbor's property IF they feel life is threatened. THE MAN trying to enter my home ended up successfully entering a neighbor's home, fortunately they weren't home. He made off with several thousand dollars worth of items and as far as I know was NEVER CAUGHT OR IDENTIFIED.

Awful lot of "could haves", "ifs","maybe " to justify killing someone. Also, if the man that successfully burglarized your neighbors were never caught or identified, how do you know it was the same man attempting to rob you?

Just curious.

God is Judge wrote:

<quoted text>
Awful lot of "could haves", "ifs","maybe " to justify killing someone. Also, if the man that successfully burglarized your neighbors were never caught or identified, how do you know it was the same man attempting to rob you?
Just curious.

"Two men suspected of burglarizing a neighbor's home were shot in the back by Pasadena homeowner Joe Horn after the suspects ventured into his front yard"

there go's the "could haves", "ifs","maybe " you spoke of. if they came toward him onto his property THEY were wrong and HE was justified.

Also, the coming onto his property and the shootings were witnessed by the off-duty police officer. With no other witnesses I really do not see anything Mr. Horn should be worried about. Almost forgot...I guess he does have to worry about the black panther party protests....but...at least those will not be IN his neighborhood since the new ordinance banning protests in neighborhoods was passed. Got to like the city council for that one...preventing those racist pinheads from being able to stage more protests or rallies in the neighborhood was a very good decision.

i don't know why all these liberal hippies are springing to the aid of the "victim" who is, in fact, the witnessed perpetrator of a crime.

why should society fear the perp? perps should fear a society swift to enact a good measure of street justice.

society won twice: one less criminal to feed and house for a year, and a message sent to the potential criminals that the stakes are higher than they've ever been.

good for Horn, for doing what's right, and doing what's fair.

i have been victimized twice by BMV. once you are robbed of your belongings you also get to pay the deductible, to replace "it's only stuff, it's not worth killing someone over."

i'd like to have a perp under my belt as i deal with the bullcrap of digging through my past trying to prove to the insurance company that i actually owned the things that were stolen.

peace-of-mind does have a value, and it's roughly the price of a box of shells + tax.

If thieves were shot, and preferably killed to comply with the Paperwork Reduction Act, regularly by property owners or their neighbors either there would be a lot less thieves who are not now in the business or due to drastic reductions in crime statistics the "news" wouldn't even make the Want Ad section of the paper and wouldn't appear on TV or radio at all.

Killing is killing, there is no reason to take another life. This was murder!

Pacifist wrote:

Killing is killing, there is no reason to take another life. This was murder!

Do you REALLY think the two thieves would have had the same sentiment as you? PLEEESE!! Thieves would not hesitate one iota to kill you first for just casting eyes on them. Texas prisons are full of Thieves Gone Murders. The neighbor probably saved someone's life. Bravo.

So you think violence justifies violence. That's the kind of attitude that got us stuck in the Iraq quagmire.

Violence does justify violence in some cases. Not all of us are willing to allow a stranger to steal our s*** and walk all over us.

cheesebuger

i like cheese it goog yumy

Seriously.
This guy left his house intending to do harm.
He should be locked up. I don't want any crazy redneck neighbor killing people because he "suspects" they were burglarizing my home.
If there is a "god", he would not support the actions taken here.

Thanks for being a wonderful neighbor, Mr. Joe Horn!

These criminals had a history of violence and by their actions that day they had no intention on stopping anytime soon. It is this kind of scum of society that tries to suck off of the hard working productive members. There is no reason to believe that these individuals would not have hurt somebody later on. And yes I do believe that the life of one law abiding citizen is worth more than the life of a violent criminal. The safety of your neighborhood is not to just to be left up the police, citizens must take part in protecting their community, this is why the second admendment gaurntees your right to bear arms. I for one would be grateful to have Mr. Horn as my neighbor; in an age of indifference at least some are willing to go out of their way to help a neighbor.

He shot them in the back. Homicidal.
When people use hindsight to justify this act, they are forgetting that Horn did not know the criminals. They could have been your sons or your brothers he killed.
The hindsight perspective is why we have a justice system. Horn does not represent the reasonable response to a burglary of his neighbors house.
These guys were murdered and Horn is a murderer.

He did the right thing. Thieves are the lowest form of life and should be removed from the earth at every opportunity. There are lots of people in the world and they should not have to put up with such. It's a shame you can't bait them.

Interesting. It's a good thing that the guys who were killed were criminals. Could you imagine how it would have looked if they were not actually burglarizing the place? Here's my example. I few years I got a call from my little brother to bring his digital camera to school; he forgot it at my dad's place and he was leaving on a school trip that afternoon. I drove over to my dad's place and because I didn't have keys and nobody was home, I had to enter in through the back window. We had used this method for years when we forgot our keys & is was inconvenient, but got the job done. This occasion was different, in that after years of being forced open, the window broke after being forced open from the outside. My palm slipped through and I was cut. Anyway, it wasn't so bad. I climbed through anyway and retrieved the camera.

Now, anybody watching all this happen who didn't already know who I really was would probably think I was burglarizing the place. Sure, I wasn't carrying out large boxes of crown jewels; I had a digicam. Still, it looked like I was robbing the place.

Now, what if a neighbor were watching all this take place and I was subsequently gunned down, shot in the back after posing no threat of physical harm to said neighbor? The thing is, that scenario isn't really so outrageous that it could never happen.

What kind of precedent does this set? I guess we'll see when it happens again.

What if Joe Horn were Hispanic Juan Horn and the burglars were white girls instead? Do you think that would have made a difference in the ruling?

Just thought I'd throw it out there since topics on this board are often left untouched unless they have to do with racism.