Navy veteran Matthew Horn was shot six times after rushing to defend his friend during a livestreamed home invasion at a $3 million Tarzana home. One bullet remains lodged near his heart. The suspect faces attempted murder charges on $2 million bail.
A disabled Navy veteran was shot six times after rushing to defend his friend during a home invasion that unfolded live on Twitch inside a $3 million Tarzana home. The shooting happened in the early morning hours of April 18, and the entire attack was broadcast online before the stream went dark.
Matthew Horn, 37, was not even in the house when the intruders arrived. He was at a nearby location when he realized his friend, Twitch streamer Jayden Samuel (known online as Aesdr), was in danger. Horn jumped into his car, grabbed a can of bear spray, and drove to Samuel's Tarzana residence.
"Jayden, he's like my little brother, I'd never let anything happen to him. I had to do something," Horn told the Daily Mail.
According to FOX 11 Los Angeles, four men broke into the home just before 2 a.m., smashing the gate and forcing the back door open. They demanded $2,500 in cash from Samuel and the other people inside.
Samuel and his friends tried to negotiate from the top of the stairs for more than half an hour.
"I said, 'I'll give you half of what you're asking for,'" Samuel recalled. "They said, 'No, we want the full amount, or we'll kill all you guys.'"
Horn burst through the front door and confronted the intruders, warning them he was military and demanding they leave. The group retreated toward the exit. Then the shooting started.
"I let him know I'm military, hopefully to scare him off, hopefully make him run," Horn told FOX 11. "Nope. He just pulled out a gun and shot me six times: three times in the front, three times in the back. He was trying to kill me."
Horn was hit with three bullets to the chest and three to the back and left buttock. One bullet was partially blocked by the bear spray can in his hand and ricocheted through his torso.
"It was like you have an elephant sitting on your chest. The weight and heaviness of something being there collapsing your lungs," Horn said.
He underwent four to five hours of surgery at Northridge Hospital. Surgeons cut along his chest from sternum to pelvis, leaving a wound held together with dozens of staples. One bullet bounced off his sternum, passed through his liver, stomach, and spleen, and remains lodged in his chest close to his heart. Doctors told him that a shift of half an inch to the left would have been fatal.
Additional injuries include:
Horn stayed in the hospital for 13 days. He was discharged and then rushed to UCLA Medical Center when he developed severe chest pains. Doctors found over 200 milliliters of blood and fluid in his lungs.
"They said if I had waited one more day, I would have died," Horn said.
Samuel said police took 30 minutes to arrive, and an ambulance took another 30 minutes after that. Horn lay on the floor for roughly an hour before receiving medical help.
"So Matthew was on the floor for an hour and he survived," Samuel said.
Samuel believes the first shot was aimed at him.
"That first bullet, it was for me. It was two inches away from me, it would have hit me in my pelvis and I would have died," Samuel said. "Matthew saved all our lives. He's a hero, we might all be dead if he didn't come."
The trauma has affected everyone in the house. Samuel took a two-week break from streaming and broke down sobbing when he returned. Three young women who were in the home developed PTSD, according to the Daily Mail.
Horn battles nightly nightmares as he recovers at home.
"The nightmares are horrible. I walk around with bullets all in my body and I'm talking to people but I have these big holes all through me," he said.
A GoFundMe page has been launched to help cover Horn's medical bills, which have already reached $11,000 in out-of-pocket costs, according to British Brief.
Authorities arrested 22-year-old Sean Charles Strong, a wannabe rapper known online as YoungBigBro, on April 22. He is charged with attempted murder and is being held on $2 million bail. He has pleaded not guilty, according to the Daily Mail and FOX 11.
No other suspects have been charged, though some are believed to be minors. Samuel and his friends reportedly identified suspects through Twitch, British Brief reported.
The LAPD told FOX 11 that the shooting "appears to stem from a business dispute that quickly escalated." That characterization differs from Samuel's account. According to British Brief, Samuel's housemate Andrew explained that a man contacted them through Instagram to host a small event. Over 100 rowdy people showed up instead, leading them to call the police. The man was a middleman who lied about the event, and the intruders came looking for money.
Horn served in the U.S. Navy from 2009 to 2013. His deployments included capturing Somali pirates, responding to a tsunami off the coast of Japan, and saving five people from drowning, including fellow sailors and a young girl at a wedding.
He survived four years of active service in a dozen countries without a scratch. Then he was shot six times in his friend's Tarzana living room.
"I know God still wants me here on Earth because of the bullets, the heart attack, the blood in my lungs, and a 103F fever," Horn said. "I'm making it, but it's breaking me down. I'm just trying not to give up."
Samuel called Horn's actions heroic.
"Matthew is my hero," Samuel said. "He's everyone else's hero that was in this house."
"I leaned in for the hug and I said, you're my hero. You saved me, you saved us. My life is yours now," Samuel told the Daily Mail.
This article was generated with AI assistance.