this is dateline. >> she's, like christy, i need you to sit down. i'm like, oh, no. this is never a good thing. your dad was shot. i collapsed to the floor. none of it made sense to me. i had to hear the whole story. >> fences make good neighbors, they say. this was made for a fight. >> drug private property without permission. >> we are? >> big sky country, small by one man. >> the neighbors felt he was a bully. >> this man, who refused to be fenced in. >> praise for this country. >> a showdown, for shooting, and one man died. >> on his elbow, he said, he should've done that. >> the shooter says it was kill or be killed. what was the truth? >> it was murder. >> kieran simple? >> yes. >> the man who shot first told his story. >> him or me, and i shot him. >> he said he came at me with a gun and i didn't have a choice. >> did the dead man's body tell a different story? >> wasn't even looking at him. he was looking the other direction. he got shot in the back. >> only two men were there and one of them is debt. now, his daughter wants the truth. >> who is this guy that could just steal such a beautiful soul from this world? ♪ ♪ ♪ >> hello, welcome to dateline. buying a piece of land to call your own is part and parcel of the american dream, but when it montana bought his slice of heaven in the vast western wilderness, it would set off a chain of events that ended more like a nightmare with one man shot down and another charged with murder. how did this neighborly dispute turned deadly? here's morrison with the feud. >> there are still places in america so peaceful, god must have been smiling. like this place in montana, bob marshall wilderness. more than 1 million natural acres outside the glacier national park. humans, a small pale stain on the fringes of paradise. strange that a person out here would feel so tense. >> we always knew that something was going to happen. >> but there was no question about it. soon, de la rosa was a worried woman. >> we just didn't know who is going to be on the other receiving end of it. >> yes, there is trouble, big trouble. soon, her husband down could feel it in his bones. this had been such a happy place. nearly a century, people have been coming here to hunt and fish and ride the trails, summer, winter, whatever. families, like the della rosa, bought small lots and built cabins downhill from the public lands. around an old ranch called the diamond bar ex. >> it was a place to get away from your daily grind. you go up on the weekends, that you heard, and have fun. >> with no boundaries, i'm assuming. >> that's exactly right. >> harmony, community, where the rule. that, 2001, sue and dan were married up here by everyone's favorite waterfall. >> we invited everyone. it was a fun place to be and everybody was family up there. >> oh, how they loved it. >> praise the lord for this country. >> tim newman loved it to. his daughter, christy -- >> my dad was a real mountain man. he loved being in nature and sleeping under the stars without a tent. that's what made him happy. >> tim and his wife, jacqui, we're fixing up a cabin up their own here. >> move fast, real fast. running around, fixing this, i will wake up to hammers banging and saws. >> he and jackie are each other's second chance at love. they bowled each other over and 2004, got married. >> i felt so blessed. we were blessed. >> or were before the trouble. it was that business about the land that started it. one of the neighbors had always use the land and trails like everybody else, managed to buy up hundreds of acres for himself, smack dab between all of those little cottages and the vast public wilderness of the mountain. then, he refused to allow anybody to use the generations old trails connecting their cottages to the forest. this is him. his name is joe campbell. >> how do you feel about that? >> not happy. >> not good. it was like they were taking something away that was mine all along. we felt violated. really? why would you do that? >> then, deputy kohberger responded. often. >> what was the name thing when you got called in there for? >> people trying to access the public land through private land. the owners of the private land blocking the access. >> any one particular name you got to name more than others? >> mr. campbell. >> what was the neighbors feeling about him? >> the neighbors felt he was a bully. >> not only neighbors, mind you -- >> private property without permission. >> we are? >> this is 2008. joe campbell confronting a visiting hunting party. >> you're on my property. three quarters of -- >> joe by wielding a high powered shocker called a street smoker. known far-right control, combat. >> quite a weapon you are carrying. are you threatened? >> that eta bergen. >> i was, that he's going to run into the wrong type of person. he isn't going to put up with him. i thought other he would shock me someone like that or he was going to shoot somebody. >> then, there is a time when joe marched into a de la rosa family reunion, they said. claiming that one of their cars was blocking a road. >> screaming, yelling profanities. you know? being an absolute jerk. >> the della roses wrote a letter to the county attorney, asking him to do something about joe before someone got hurt. they were advised that the property disputes were a civil man -- matter. then, some of the families sued. years later, made a deal with joe that gave them the right to cross his land. joe put up signs, listening the people granted access. >> we saw some deer. >> not everyone could afford to join the lawsuit. tim newman, for example. >> so, it was really hard for him to swallow that. he wasn't accepting of it at all. >> there is dan up there, leading the way. >> anyway, he figured his god given right to use those trails superseded any earthbound lawsuit. >> this is the gate to annoy us. it's annoying. >> yes, tim newman was convinced. he had a natural right to cross campbell's land, a long use traditional trails to get to a very public national forest. >> some are over there, we're not going that way. >> highlights of temper 2013, tension was, well, it was tense. tim challenging joe. joe increasingly angry. threats flying back and forth. that, it was hunting season. here, a brief calm. tim at a hunting front avoided joe -- campbell's land. >> here we are, cutting trails. hunting season 2013. it's getting pretty. >> what did that, we tim left a voice mail for his daughter, christy. >> he was telling me about a bear he just had gotten. he'd been wanting to get a bear for a long time. he finally got up there. >> what is the old saying? >> sometimes you get the bear, sometimes you don't -- you know the rest. by the way, everybody but the bear lived. that day. but not for long. >> 9-1-1, what is your emergency? >> shots were fired in -- >> a shooting up on the mountain. who was the victim and who was the shooter? >> coming up -- >> she's, like christy, i need you to sit down. i'm like, no. >> and a puzzle for the sheriff. two guns, one angry man. >> i was just plain -- a thought he was going to shoot me, so i shot him first. >> when dateline continues. inues. i've never been healthier. shingles doesn't care. but shingrix protects. proven over 90% effective, shingrix is a vaccine used to prevent shingles in adults 50 years and older. shingrix does not protect everyone and is not for those with severe allergic reactions to its ingredients or to a previous dose. an increased risk of guillain-barré syndrome was observed after getting shingrix. fainting can also happen. the most common side effects are pain, redness and swelling at the injection site, muscle pain, tiredness, headache, shivering, fever, and upset stomach. ask your doctor or pharmacist about shingrix today. kiddo: mom, can i go to the movies? 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(vo) it's your last chance to turn any iphone in any condition into a new iphone 15 pro with titanium and ipad and apple watch se - all on us. that's up to $1700 in value. only on verizon. keith morrison: on a friday afternoon, october 2013, a sheriff's deputy >> on a friday afternoon, raced 20 miles from the small town of augusta, montana, october 2013, a sheriff's deputy raised 20 miles from the small town of augusta, montana. to the edge of a bog marshall wilderness. >> clark county sheriff--'s >> there had been a 9-1-1 call. reports of shots fired, a man down. when the deputy finally pulled to a stop, he found joe campbell standing behind the gate he built to block the trail to public lands. just ten feet away, sprawled in the dirt, there was tim newman. the deputy ripped open newman shirt, saw a gunshot wound to the chest and that it was too late. >> my phone rang. she's, like christy, i need you to sit down. >> tim's daughter got a call from her aunt. >> i'm like, oh, no, this is never good thank. i just immediately said, no. no, i don't want it, i don't want you to tell me what you're about to tell me, no. like, no. she's like, i'm sorry. your father shot. tim's death. >> tim knew it was 53 when he died beneath the big sky he loved. >> i was floored. i was stunned. >> we always knew with the guns being pulled that something was going to happen. i just didn't know who was going to be on the receiving end of it. >> it's a beautiful area. as you're driving there, you're thinking, how could anybody who lives in such wonder be so angry? >> sheriff leo dunn responded to the scene just after his deputies. i'm found joe campbell in the back of a patrol vehicle. >> hi, sir. >> hi there. >> sure. >> we had to take a straight face value because nothing seemed amiss. >> what was that story? >> it was plain -- a thought he was going to shoot me, so i shot first. >> made sense. tim newmansville. 357 magnum was found on the ground, not far from his right-hand. and the sheriff knew that tim newman had been debating the bear, biting joe campbell's rules about what he could or couldn't crosses land. carried a video camera with him. >> this is what you have to go through with this gate. >> tim, boldest brass, had been cutting padlocks, which joe campbell used to block his gates. >> when i first talked to mr. newman about this, he admitted to cutting those locks and said, he was going to continue to do that. i said, well, i guess if that is the case, mean you areoy good friends. because i will see you quite often. >> did you charge tim newman? >> i did. i did. >> right of tickets for him? >> i did. for criminal mischief to the box and gates that he was cutting and destroying. >> not long. >> tim thought the charges put but up a judge, where he would finally have a chance to set the record straight and preserve what he believed to be his natural right to use the trails across joes land to the very public national forest. but, just days before the shooting, a county attorney dismissed all the charges against him saying it was not a criminal matter, but a civil one, which tampa newman took as tacit permission to keep cutting the locks. >> did you ever say, to, this is not a good way to go. >> yeah, we did. yeah. >> you're gonna go cousin because locks, there are a happy camper. >> yes. >> which leads us back to the gate where tim newman now lay dead. joe campbell was telling sheriff deputies a story. he and his wife, tammy, we're walking up the trail to ward their property, said joe, when tim started following on his atv. they were frightened, he said. they urge through the gate, slipped through it. as he said his wife to call the sheriff, tim thought out of his atv and approach the gate with a pair of bolt cutters. then, said joe, tim planed down to the padlock of the gate and notice joe was wearing a pistol on his hip. >> he said, oh, your armed. he started putting his hands on his gun and coming up. that's when i drew my gun. i shot and he spun around. i thought i'd hit him, but wasn't sure. he spun around and he still had his gun in his hands. and he was going down. i shot him again and the back. i was ready to shoot again that each of the gun and rolled over. and then, he got up double, that you should have done that joe. >> that was joe campbell story. he was threatened, so he shot tim newman twice. i, in the chest, that in the back. >> we didn't arrest him because he asserted itself defense. in montana, there's a lot that you don't have any duty to run if you feel threatened and you can protect yourself with deadly force. >> essentially, shoot first and figured out later. >> yes. >> figuring it out will take time. >> i can walk up. >> no, we will give you a ride. >> so, joe campbell was sent home that very day. and tim newman's body was taken away for an autopsy. of course, science entered the story. science is glorious as all outdoors and badawey human advantages. >> coming -- up this really all came down to the body. >> absolutely. >> but tim's neighbors had already decided. >> they were, why wasn't he in jail? 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