Harry Lee is a full-time security guard, trained to defend himself with a gun. So it was mostly instinct, he says, that led him to pull his 9mm semi-automatic Sunday night.
But he never meant to kill 24-year-old Jorge Cabezas - just scare him and his combative companion."It's a part of my life I want to put behind me. I can't sleep at night . . . I wish I could change what happened," Lee said in an interview Friday.
Cabezas died instantly after a bullet from the man's gun struck him in the head. The shooting occurred behind the Red Belle Bar on State Street as Lee and another man, whom Cabezas accompanied, wrestled for the handgun.
"Had I not had my weapon, I would have been dead. There's no doubt in my mind about that. But if you're asking if I meant to shoot one of them, I didn't," he said.
Authorities will not file any criminal charges over the incident, saying Lee probably was justified in brandishing the firearm.
The incident began about 1:30 a.m., just after Lee left the bar where he played harmonica in a band. After helping a patron get his car off a sheet of ice, Lee stepped into his truck.
"The next thing I knew, these two were attacking me."
According to police, the pair pounded on Lee's windows, opened the door and tried to hit him. That's when the security guard grabbed his gun.
Cabezas backed away but the other man, who police said was drunk, tried to wrest the pistol from Lee. Two shots were fired, one piercing Cabezas' torso and the other entering his head.
Lee fled the scene but later drove to the home of a Salt Lake police officer, his childhood friend, and turned himself in. Detectives released him on his own recognizance.
Lee, 49, is licensed to carry a concealed weapon and said the incident hasn't changed his mind about keeping it within reach.