Sniper on the Loose (page 2 of 8)

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One mans confession led to another mans realization.

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Two people got shot Saturday night, and another guy on Monday night

Buddies for Life

Up to that moment, Horton's life was gratifyingly calm and steady, especially compared with his hard-partying days as manager of the Mason Jar rock bar. Back then, he often returned home with the sunrise, and, he says, "I was medicating myself to stay awake."

But then Horton met Debbie at a bar across the street, and the two wound up building a life together—until Debbie stunned Horton by moving out, leaving him to care for their three children. Horton quit the Mason Jar and took work as a construction contractor, a job that allowed him regular hours so he could be with his sons. He spent as much time as possible with them, coaching their Little League teams, helping with homework and even trying his hand at chicken soup if one of the boys got sick. His mother warned him that his devotion was too consuming. "Have a life of your own or you're going to resent your kids," she said, and Horton listened to her.

"I ventured out slowly," he says, and he began to forge new friendships. On one of those first outings, six years ago, Horton struck up a conversation at a local bar with Samuel Dieteman, a husky guy with an easy smile who was serving drinks. Sammy to his friends, Dieteman liked to laugh, tell stories and pull pranks, and his playfulness appealed to Horton. So did Dieteman's commitment to his friends. "If you gave him a ride or bought him a drink, he was your buddy for life," Horton says. "He'd fall all over himself to pay you back." Horton brought Dieteman into his expanding circle of friends, and though Dieteman didn't have a motorcycle, he was embraced by the biker group as one of the family.

As difficult a stretch as Horton had experienced, he discovered that Dieteman had faced even more: He married young, divorced early and tangled with the law—everything from bar fights to doing jail time.

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