Wounded Man Stable as D.A. Begins Probe

A man wounded during a family dispute in which another was shot and killed by an Orange police officer was in stable condition Sunday, said a spokeswoman for St. Joseph’s Hospital in Orange.

Joe Montoya was shot in the arm Friday night at the home of his daughter, Nadine, whose husband apparently threatened her and then pointed a gun at an Orange police officer, authorities said.

Robert John Horst, 41, was then shot to death by the officer, police said. However, they refused Sunday to say who shot Montoya or how many times or where Horst was wounded, or to give any other details about the shootings, referring questions to Deputy Dist. Atty. Bryan Brown.

The district attorney’s office is conducting an investigation of the shooting, Brown said Sunday. Brown confirmed that Montoya had been shot but would not say by whom. A teen-aged boy who answered the Horsts’ door Sunday declined to talk to a reporter. However, some of the Horsts’ neighbors offered details.

Neighbors said they heard yelling from inside the home in the 600 block of East Jefferson Avenue about 8 p.m. Friday. According to Steve McHarris, 26, who lives across the street, a policeman parked about four houses from the Horsts. The officer was alone, McHarris and two other neighbors said.

“We saw him walk down the street, and about the same time the Chevy Blazer (backed) out of the driveway with the mother and daughter inside,” said Alicia Smith, 21, who said she was at McHarris’ house Friday night.

As the officer reached the Horst driveway, another car pulled into it, this one driven by a man believed to be Joe Montoya, neighbors said.

“We went back to work (on household chores), then we heard the shots,” Smith said. “It sounded like firecrackers, maybe five or six of them. Within a minute or two there were six or eight cop cars on the street.”

Neighbors said the Horsts have two children, a daughter and son, both students at Orange High School a block from the family home. Their father was a pool maintenance worker for the Orange Unified School District, which includes Orange High School, neighbors said.

Police would not comment on neighbors’ reports that the father had hit the daughter in the face nor the neighbors’ contention that only one officer entered the home before the shots were fired.

“It’s a great family,” one neighbor said. “That’s all I can say.”

Police were summoned to the home Friday night by an unidentified caller who reported a violent family disturbance at the Horst residence. Robert Horst was allegedly armed with “multiple” guns, police said.