Horn's account of the events leading up to the shootings differs sharply in parts with what can be heard on the tape of the call he made to 911 shortly after seeing the men allegedly breaking into his neighbors' house.

He said he was upstairs in his gameroom, tinkering with a computer, when the quiet of the Village Grove East subdivision was shattered by the sound of breaking glass. He instinctively blamed the family cat, Horn said, before realizing that the noise had come from outside.

He looked out the window and saw two men, both dressed in dark green T-shirts, blue jeans and tennis shoes, breaking into his neighbors' home through a block glass window.

He called 911 on his cell phone.

He said he began to feel scared. He didn't know who the men were, nor if his neighbors were home and were in danger. Was his home the next target?

He went to his car to get a 12-gauge shotgun he kept in a leather case on the floorboard.

"All I was thinking was, 'Oh my God,' " he said. "You lose track of time. You don't ever think about that. You start thinking about all kinds of things. ... I was feeling helpless."

From his upstairs window, Horn said he saw the men leave his neighbors' home and walk around the back of the house where he couldn't see them.

While still on the phone with the 911 dispatcher, he said he went downstairs with the goal of getting a description of the men to give police.

But, according to the transcript, he provided the dispatcher a far different motive:

Operator: Mr. Horn, do not go out the house.

Horn: I'm sorry. This ain't right, buddy.

Operator: You're going to get yourself shot if you go outside that house with that gun. I don't care what you think. Stay in the house.

Horn: You wanna make a bet? I'm gonna kill 'em.

As he was going downstairs, Horn said the fear and adrenaline rush was intense.

"I'm thinking if they go out the front door, I can't see them at all," he said. His plan was to look out the front door window to get a better view of his neighbor's house. Seeing nothing, he ventured outside.

He said he took one step off his front porch and saw nothing. "I felt great. I was so relieved that I didn't see anything. I thought, 'It's over with.' "

Then he saw the men come around the corner and head into his front yard. Horn had his cell phone in his front shirt pocket while he handled the shotgun.

'No fear in their eyes'

"It went from 'I'm glad it's all over' to instant fear," he said.

He shouted the words he now regrets: "Move, you're dead." The men — about 10 feet and 13 feet from him — stopped immediately. They looked at one another and said nothing.

"There was no fear in their eyes," Horn said.

One of the men, believed to be Torres, started to charge him, Horn said. He fired.

"There was no time to aim," Horn said. "To this day, I still don't know where I shot."

Horn said he turned slightly to the right and fired toward the second man, Ortiz, who ran at a fast pace back in the direction of his neighbor's house. Torres remained in his yard and was walking back toward Horn. He fired a third shot.

Horn didn't think his shots struck either man.

"I went inside because the guy (Ortiz) disappeared," he said. "I thought he was behind the house. ... I was desperate for the police to get there."

A police car screeched to a halt in front of his house. An officer drew his gun and ordered him "on the ground."

Horn, who still had his cell phone to his ear, dropped face-first and was handcuffed.

He was eventually allowed to sit up and saw one of the men across the street, lying prone. "I thought I scared him enough to fall to the ground."

It wasn't until he overheard one officer tell another that "there were two burglars and this man just killed them" that he realized both men were dead.

The moment was surreal.

"It was like nothing I've ever felt," Horn said. "It was like it wasn't really happening. Just numb."