[narrator] Life in the country should be nice and easy.
Everybody's very friendly. Everybody waved.
Hey, Lisa, Dean. Come meet Jeff.
But all it takes is one person to turn peace into war.
Great job training your dog.
Just seemed like he had a hard life, just kind of bitter.
We got to do something.
He became more controlling with her.
What are you looking at?
- [dog barking] - Help!
He just kind of went ballistic.
Are you crazy?
Stop! What are you doing? Someone's gonna get hurt.
I don't know why she didn't ask him to leave.
- [gunshot] - Once allegiances are set, it's a fight to the death.
- [groans] - Call 911!
I can't live like this.
[grunting]
You want me? Come and get me!
This time I think he's serious.
At this stage, we realized he was never going away.
I swear I'm gonna kill you one day.
Never in a million years could anyone have expected what was about to happen.
- Get back. - [gunshots]
- Bye, daddy. - [glass shatters]
This isn't over.
Pull the trigger whenever you're ready.
[tires screeching]
- [grunting] - [woman screams]
- [siren wailing] - I'm back.
- It's torture! - [woman screaming]
[narrator] Residents of Greenwood, Indiana,
get to live the best of both worlds.
You can live in a rural sort of country area,
but still being five, ten, 15 minutes from the city.
[Lisa] Everybody knows everybody.
People, you know, care about each other.
We check in with each other.
It's just a nice place to live.
[narrator] For Dean Keller and his wife Lisa...
- Hey, guys! - Hey, how are you?
- Hi, dad. - ...it's not just about the lifestyle.
Their family has a rich history in these parts.
My kids are the fourth generation to go to the school
that is right around the corner.
You could say we have some roots.
Generations of families have lived in the area
for long periods of time.
My in-laws live just south of my house,
and the house that they built and have lived in since they were married.
[narrator] Dean and Lisa both work in the city.
He's a firefighter. She's an attorney.
But with their youngest kids, Andrew and Shelby,
still living at home, parenting is easier
when you know all your neighbors.
Everybody's very friendly. Everybody waved.
We know our neighbors, our neighbors know us.
We know everybody in the community.
Nancy Phillips has lived next door
to the Kellers for over 20 years.
She and her late husband originally bought the property from Dean's uncle.
Nancy's property and the property that we own used to be connected as one.
She was friendly and we didn't have any issues with her.
We joked. It was a good atmosphere.
-Look, isn't that pretty? -We got to go, mom. We're running late.
Nancy has two daughters,
-Dawn and Debbie. -Thanks so much for lunch. [indistinct]
We get along with them really well.
Thank you for coming.
Her daughters came and her grandkids came out and,
you know, they enjoyed playing out there like we did
when we were kids.
As Nancy enters her 70s, life alone is harder.
As a single woman living out
where we live with three acres of ground to mow,
that would be a lot to take on as a widowed female.
So, Nancy comes up with the perfect solution.
She invites her old friend, Jeff Weigle, to rent a room in her house.
[Shipe] He and Nancy and Nancy's husband all worked together,
but when her husband passed away,
then he moved out there
and started renting from her to help
with the expenses and workload.
It was a reasonable place for him to stay.
So it worked out for both of them.
[screeching]
[narrator] Jeff quickly gets down to business.
Jeffrey Weigle is a very active guy
because you could tell in the way he walked.
He seemed to have just a bunch of energy.
He's kind of a person who gets by on his own resources,
his own strength, his own two hands.
[laughs] Hi.
Hey, Lisa, Dean. Come meet Jeff.
- Hey, Jeff. - Nice to meet you.
- Hi. - When I first met Jeff,
he was just helping out, he was Nancy's new boarder
and we went to talk to him, it was, welcome to the neighborhood.
Yeah, I hear you're a firefighter, that's pretty impressive.
Hey, I'm impressed by anybody who cuts their own wood.
Yeah, probably, half as fast as you can because of the arm, you know?
He had something wrong with one of his arms, that happened at work.
He was on some kind of disability for this.
It hindered some of the things he could do physically.
Just seemed like he had a hard life.
I promised her I'd help out, and so here I am.
We'll see you lot here?
Well, you probably will, yes.
Can't see too much of a good neighbor.
[Jeff laughs]
[narrator] But a good beginning doesn't guarantee a happy ending.
- [dog barking] - Go away!
[gunshots]
For now, the Kellers welcome Jeff with open arms.
- Nice to meet you, Jeff. - Me, too.
Let us know if you need anything, okay.
Thank you. Take care, guys.
- Yeah. - Bye.
I wouldn't say they were best friends,
but they could count on each other if things were needed.
- It's nice to see Nancy with a friend. - Yep.
She was only on her own.
Initially, I thought it was gonna be good.
[insects chirping]
[narrator] As time passes, Jeff is true to his word,
and keeps the property in great shape.
[Vic] He would take care of the chores around the house,
fixing whatever when it was broken or, and that sort of stuff.
And I take it he was very good at that sort of thing.
Hey, Jeff, I brought you some coffee.
Oh, that's great. Just leave it right there, I'll get to it.
- Thanks, hon. - And it was clear that,
you know, she was a big supporter of everything Jeffrey did.
[narrator] Just as Jeff starts feeling settled,
Dean unknowingly makes him uncomfortable.
- Out. - [blows whistle]
[barking]
Out, good. Sit.
You're training an attack dog?
What are you talking about?
We had a German shepherd puppy.
He's a very friendly dog. Everybody like that dog.
We're doing obedience training. We're off leash around here.
Off leash?
If you say so.
People in the country don't really put their dogs on leashes.
He was not from the country.
I don't think he ever lived in the country before he lived out there.
[narrator] The dog isn't the only thing that catches Jeff off guard.
Are you in the military?
Ah, part time.
We're retired out of Air Force Reserve,
and we typically did not come and go from the property in our uniforms.
But one night after drill, Dean came home in uniform.
I'm more of a peace nick, huh.
He told me one time that he was a peace loving hippie.
He had protested the war.
Hope you don't have a problem with that.
Not in the least.
I told him I'm like, you know, that's fine.
I choose to serve, that's my choice.
You chose not to, that's your choice.
You don't have to like it.
- [dog whimpering] - Wait, wait, wait.
It's pretty clear that Dean and Jeffrey
came from two different worlds.
He just seemed like somebody who's just kind of bitter at life.
- Nancy, wait for me! - The tension between the two men intensifies
when Dean witnesses an unsettling conversation.
I'm just going to see the girls. I'll drive on my own.
I know it's too far into town, it's too dangerous.
- Dangerous how? - Get in the car.
Whenever she wanted to go somewhere,
Jeffrey made sure he was with her.
Get in the car.
It was bizarre behavior. There was no point in it.
He became more controlling with her.
Nancy would not stand up to Jeff when that was going on.
That just raised some questions about his character.
[narrator] And Jeff doesn't appreciate having an audience.
What are you looking at?
There are people that you just don't click with, I understand that.
But those are the people you just try to stay away from.
Unfortunately, I learned that a little bit later.
[birds chirping]
Once Jeff moved in, he kind of pushed everybody away.
It just kind of changed the whole dynamic
of the relationship with Nancy.
He didn't want anybody on the property.
[narrator] His disdain goes for pets, too.
[sighs] No.
Hey, great job training your dog!
What's that supposed to mean?
It means this belongs to you!
He believed we had trained our dog to go onto their property,
to use their property as opposed
to leaving a mess on our property.
Look, your dog is on my lawn all the time.
I don't want them over here.
Dogs roam all over the place. Even Nancy's dog.
It was common for the dogs to roam about, just wasn't a big deal.
It didn't have to be a big deal.
Dogs have never been a problem.
But they're a problem now, okay.
Your guard dog scares the hell out of me!
It seems like the German shepherd kind of amped that up
because that went along with that anti-military,
anti-uniform thing that always set him off.
Nancy, are you okay with this?
Well, he'd prefer not to have your dogs over here, which makes sense.
It was just him trying to exert control.
It seemed like he wanted to be her mouthpiece.
Like he's got Nancy wrapped around his little finger.
She would just think that everything he said was the gospel.
Noticed her daughters don't stop by as often?
I think they find him too controlling.
Can you blame them?
[Lisa] Her daughters didn't come around,
her grandkids no longer came around.
He had managed to pretty much isolate her from everybody.
He really became in control of everything
that went on around that property.
[narrator] The Kellers try their best to keep their distance from Jeff.
But the next time their dog crosses the property line,
the situation escalates.
- That's a good swing, isn't it, Shelby? - How's it going?
My sister was visiting, Jeff was walking down the road,
I got a hold of that dog.
[indistinct] swinging, Shelby.
Rocky did not like Jeff.
Didn't matter if Jeff was just out on the porch,
if Jeff was anywhere outside his house, Rocky would bark.
Suddenly, the dog snaps and makes a beeline for the neighbor.
No! Back off! Help!
[barking continues]
[Jeff groans]
He just bit me!
[Dean] What are you doing?
Hey, what, are you crazy?
He just kind of went ballistic and pulled the knife.
Back off! Get away!
[Shipe] It was really scary.
I've never ever seen anybody pull a knife in my whole life.
Back off! Back off!
He has a pocket knife pulled, I was like, "You can put the knife away."
Oh, oh, what are you doing?
I know it's not right then, my dog's off my property.
But there's no need to cause harm.
Are you crazy?
We got kids out here, I'm just trying to get this deescalated.
I'm afraid they got his dog. We thought Jeff was okay.
He wasn't bleeding, we didn't see any injuries.
- [siren wailing] - And then Jeff called the authorities.
[narrator] When officers arrive, they question both sides.
The dog jumped on him when it ran out.
- [Jeff groans] - And it scratched him,
but there were no bite marks.
[narrator] It can't be verified whether the dog bit Jeff Weigle.
But either way, there's consequences.
There are abrasions on Mr. Weigle's leg,
so you're gonna have to quarantine your dog.
You can't be serious?
Which means that the dog had to be inside.
No, I'm serious.
Or if it was outside, to use a leash,
which was just kind of weird.
[narrator] Law enforcement tells both neighbors
to stay on their respective properties.
Be careful.
Come on, he's more worried about his dogs than he is about me.
Jeffrey believed that the Kellers
didn't act quickly to pull the dog off of him.
Help! Help!
So he was very angry about that.
That was probably the first moment
that this is not gonna be something
that's going to probably work out.
This is hard to understand because we hadn't dealt with somebody like that
in our area before.
Weeks later, the dog quarantine ends.
But Jeff's fear of the Kellers' pet remains.
Hey, I would appreciate it if you keep your dog on a leash.
Why leash?
Because he bit me once, he could bite me again.
I didn't understand what his thought process was.
If you're afraid of the dog, then step back into your house.
Yeah, I'll follow the letter of the law,
but you cannot dictate what I do in my own property.
That's absurd.
Fine.
I'll just have to figure out a way
to keep your dog off our property.
Our property?
It seemed like he was always trying to get me to react.
Let's go, boy, come on. Get your ball, let's go.
[Lisa] This person who hated us, for whatever reason,
controlled a lot of what we did and how we did it.
And that's a horrible way to live.
He rented a room, he didn't own that property.
Jeff didn't own anything.
[narrator] Since Jeff isn't leaving anytime soon,
Dean comes up with a way to divide the properties.
[phone ringing]
Hello?
Nancy.
Oh, hey, what can I do for you?
I want to build a chain link fence along our property line,
so we can go back to being good neighbors.
Well, that's fine by me.
I talked to Nancy and she said, yeah, that was fine.
Dean decides he's gonna take out a fence,
an old fence and replace it, put in a new fence
so that the dogs could stay in their particular yards
and not get into the neighbor's yards.
Hey! What the hell are you doing?
Putting a new fence.
Who told you, you could take the old one out?
[narrator] Dean now realizes this feud is about more than just dogs.
Jeffrey believed that that fence was theirs
and that Dean had no right to remove it.
First of all, it's not your fence. It's our land, it's our fence!
Secondly, Nancy said it was okay!
But you didn't okay it with me.
I knew it was our fence. It was just Jeff being Jeff.
- [grunts] - [narrator] For now, there's nothing Jeff can do.
But Dean knows that won't be the case for long.
It's like the kid that, "If you're gonna ignore me, then I'll...
I'll do something until you pay attention to me."
Our daughter is sitting out there watching, videotaping,
in case there's a problem.
And Jeff comes out while Dean is putting this fence up
and sets his chair down.
So she brought out your guard dog to threaten me, huh?
No one's threatening you. He's on our property.
Well, this ought to keep him there.
And he started lighting firecrackers and antagonizing the dog.
- [crackers rattling] - [dog barking]
The dog was growling and barking
and wanted to get across the property line.
Stop! What are you doing? Someone's gonna get hurt.
I'm on my property, I could do whatever I want.
Hey, you're gonna step on my property?
I think he was trying to lure me onto their property,
so then he could be justified to doing some action.
Are you gonna step on my property?
These two would do this daily.
Anytime they saw each other, there'd be something
that one side would do to make the other side angry.
Dad, don't!
All right, let's go, come on.
That's what I thought.
[Dean] So I'm like, probably just thought to step back.
Things were... said that were going to possibly,
you know, not be able to be unsaid.
[Dean] Good boy, come on.
You have to wonder about the pent-up anger and frustration
both sides must have been feeling.
[narrator] When Dean finally finishes the fence,
it doesn't give the Kellers the peace they were hoping for.
You don't know what he's thinking,
but you know what he said to your husband or what he said to you.
So we started making adjustments to our life
and the way we used our property.
Meanwhile, Nancy Phillips remains grateful for Jeff's help,
and oblivious to the stress he's causing her neighbors.
I don't know why she didn't ask him to leave.
She would always say we just didn't understand.
She always told us she was in control of him.
[narrator] For now, the fence keeps a safe distance between the two men,
but it doesn't cover the entire property line.
Jeff walked to the end of the fence.
Dean's German shepherd gets out and races towards Jeffrey.
- [dog barking] - Help!
- Get away! - Jeffrey is trying to defend himself
from the dog.
[groans]
Get away, get away.
I go to get the dog and he makes a move towards me.
[Jeff grunts]
I never imagined it would get to this.
Call 911!
[Jeff grunting]
Jeffrey pulls a knife,
and these two were wrestling around on the ground,
this was, this was dangerous.
I grab the arm that has the hand with the knife in it and...
he stabs me.
David! [indistinct]
It went to the bone in my right arm.
Call 911!
I got a call at work from our son Andrew crying,
telling me that Jeff had stabbed Dean.
You just don't mentally prepare yourself for a phone call that says
the neighbor's actually stabbed your spouse.
[siren wailing]
The two men plead their cases to authorities.
Look at this.
That's a second time the dog bit me, only this time he helped!
Jeffrey tells the officers
that Dean was actually holding him to the ground
and letting his dog bite him.
Look, my dog didn't bite him.
There's a bite mark on his hand.
Yeah, I did that.
I know it doesn't sound very manly, but I was the one who bit him.
Look, he stabbed me, okay?
I would like go to the hospital, if you don't mind.
They just couldn't determine who really was at fault here.
It doesn't matter at this point
whether the dog bit Jeffrey or Dean bit Jeffrey.
This is getting ridiculous.
Police see the wounds on both men
and they get the medical attention,
then take both of them to the Johnson County Jail.
The dog was considered a weapon,
the knife was considered a weapon,
so everybody was gonna be charged.
[narrator] Both men are indicted for battery.
But Dean Keller is released later that day
after his wife Lisa posts his bail.
Jeff couldn't get his bail posted,
so he was gonna spend a few nights in jail.
[door locks]
That was the only time I'd ever been arrested.
At that point in your life, that shouldn't be happening to you.
While the Kellers should feel relieved to have a few peaceful days
without Jeff Weigle,
the violence has left everyone spiraling.
[Lisa] The kids were home when the stabbing happened,
so now I've got to deal with them being traumatized by that
and a new reality that it's gonna be word on word,
and we're gonna look just as guilty as he does.
[narrator] Meanwhile, Jeff's absence leaves
Nancy Phillips feeling vulnerable.
He really got in Nancy's head.
And Jeffrey convinced her that she needed him there
that everybody was out to get them
and everybody was against them.
So when Dean and Lisa's pet gets overly excited,
Nancy is on high alert.
She panicked about the dog.
[narrator] Nancy knows there's a gap in the fence
and is afraid of the dog invading her property.
She went got a pistol and...
- [gunshot] - ...fired up into the air.
[dog growling]
Where we live, people shoot all the time.
So the gun, that didn't disturb me at all.
What bothered me was the fact that we have kids out in the yard
and what goes up has to come down.
We called the cops again and she tells the cops
that she wasn't sure how to unload the firearm,
so she fired the firearm into the air.
So there were no consequences.
[narrator] The rising strain leaves Dean and Lisa terrified
about what might happen next.
And I'm not sure staying is worth it.
You knew something was gonna give.
I can't live like this.
And that's probably the worst part as a parent,
because it's gonna be you, your husband, or your kids.
[narrator] The Kellers' anxiety spikes when Jeff is released from jail.
The prosecutors looked at the case
and eventually dropped the charge.
Dean and Lisa were hoping that that week that he was in jail was time
that she could use to get him out.
[narrator] But Nancy welcomes her tenant home with open arms.
Hey, you hungry? I made you dinner.
I am starving.
And I remember thinking, here we go again, what's gonna happen now?
You alone?
I am.
Good. I thought maybe they'd be lurking on you.
I even appealed to Nancy, at one point in time I just said, you know,
"I'll pay you rent." And she said, "Well, I need him."
He's never leaving. Ever.
It's hard to tell with them what his thought process was.
I don't know if he fed off of the strife and turmoil,
or if that just gave him purpose,
but I was going to err on the side of caution.
- I feel like I'm in a nightmare. - [Dean sighs]
Somebody is gonna get hurt and there's nothing you can do
because the law doesn't make it illegal
till the action has taken place.
[narrator] When Jeff hears about the latest incident with the Kellers' dog,
he takes matters into his own hands.
He wanted to keep the space between the two fences small enough
so that the Kellers' dog couldn't run through the fences.
The gap wasn't large enough for Rocky to get through,
and Jeff had no business being at the fence.
I told him, "This is not your fence,"
please don't attach anything to it.
"If you do, I will remove it."
[narrator] But Jeff is relentless in his pursuit to close the gap.
[Shipe] I think at one point,
it just became a point where he could further irritate my brother.
[narrator] When Dean spies Jeff back at the fence,
he knows a fight is inevitable.
Only this time, he's going to get evidence.
[Jeff] Get out of my fence.
[dog barking]
The fence was a big bone of contention in all of this.
I'm not in your face, stop touching my fence, or else...
It just added more gas onto the fire.
You stick your foot over here one more time or try to hurt me,
I'm gonna pull you over that fence.
- Dean felt... - You hear me?
...this was his fence and, by God,
"Keep your fence away from my fence."
[narrator] Overnight, the hostility simmers between Jeff and Dean.
These two were always close to blows.
It wouldn't take much for either side to throw a punch.
- And in the morning, Dean makes the first move. - Hey!
Jeffery would go out and attach it
and Dean would get the wire cutters and Dean would cut it off.
What are you doing?
You cut it again!
Neither side could let the other side alone.
Back off, huh?
[grunts]
- You back off! - [Jeff groans]
- I was giving as good as I got. - Jeez.
Here, here.
Nancy brought Jeff out a broom.
- Stop it! - Come on.
I was in disbelief.
Torture again and I'm coming over that fence!
It took my brother to a different level.
You want me? Come and get me!
I don't think either of them thought
this was ever going to get this bad.
- No! - [cocks gun]
I swear I'm gonna kill you!
- [Jeff grunts] - He had hit me a couple times in the back of the head.
[Jeff groans]
You want me? Come and get me!
I wanted to go over the fence, but I knew that I shouldn't.
And I didn't.
[siren wailing]
Police arrive, and again trying to referee as best they can
this dispute between neighbors.
It's just crazy that a fight over fence has come to this.
We didn't do anything to provoke this.
He started it with a punch!
Dean and Lisa tell police that Jeffrey had hit them both with the broom.
[Dean groans]
[narrator] But Jeff and Nancy say that Dean was the initial aggressor.
No, he started with that fence post.
Nancy tells police that Dean had picked up a fence post...
- You back off! - No!
...and hit Jeffrey with that.
[narrator] It's a case of he said, she said.
And without any concrete evidence...
So you can't do anything?
[narrator] ...no charges can be laid.
I felt like we wasted them coming out to our house.
It got very frustrating.
I just want it to end. You know what I mean? It's getting scary.
Is there nothing you can do?
I'll make a report and pass it along to the county prosecutor.
But the smart thing...
Install security camera.
The police suggested that they just put a surveillance camera out,
so these things could be caught on tape
without them having to physically record them with their phone.
[Dean] So we buy this little camera.
It's kind of aimed at the point where,
you know, we've had these issues.
I'll catch him reaching over the fence,
hitting me in the back of the head or poking me with a broom,
we'll have the irrefutable video that we need.
[narrator] For the first time,
Dean and Lisa Keller are finally confident
they'll get rid of their neighbor once and for all.
And Jeff Weigle remains determined to protect both,
he and Nancy, by any means necessary.
Nancy felt like Jeffrey was on her side
and would do what it took to protect her and protect her property.
[narrator] The next time the two men meet at the fence,
Jeff gives Dean the evidence he needs.
I actually said "Thank you" because I'm like, "All right,
he threatened me with the firearm, we can call the cops."
This time I think he's serious.
I remember thinking, finally, this is gonna end.
He's gonna get charged.
She's gonna evict him
and we're finally not gonna have to constantly be looking over our shoulder.
[narrator] Dean makes sure he's prepared to defend himself.
- Now I am. - [cocking gun]
[narrator] Just in case.
I'm carrying it 24x7.
He'd already stabbed me with a knife,
said he had a gun he planned to use it,
I'm gonna take that threat serious.
I'm scared.
Don't be. I have a plan.
[cawing]
[narrator] Before calling the police,
Dean approaches Nancy one last time to make things right.
Nancy.
Can I talk to you about Jeff?
I told her that that's not going to be good,
and you not kicking him out, this could come back on you.
It's gonna cost you a lot more if we go to court.
She felt that I was threatening her with legal action.
What do you mean?
[Shipe] All of the neighbors were concerned for Nancy.
I'm sure he was a frightening person to live with at times.
Dean's efforts snap Nancy back to reality.
You want me? I'll kill you! Come and get me!
And she begins to understand the Kellers fear of Jeff.
She knew how he acted towards people that made him angry.
Call 911!
[door closes]
I just saw his dog out in the road in front of our house.
We got to do something.
[sighs]
There you go.
I'm not so sure it's a good idea for you to stay here anymore.
Are you evicting me?
I wish things could have been different.
I'm sorry.
Just be careful of him.
Nancy's newfound bravery helps mend other fences as well.
Nancy's daughters have come back out for spending time with Nancy.
And they stop over and tell us
that Nancy is gonna have him removed from the house.
I was pretty hopeful, pretty happy.
[Dean] She had filed paperwork to evict him,
but there's a process, so he would have been there
waiting for the process of eviction.
[narrator] Before Jeff packs his bags,
the gap in the fence causes another confrontation.
Only this time, it's Nancy's dog who was trespassing.
All these threats have been made and all this has happened,
and so my brother is not gonna go near their property
to take the dog back.
Dean actually takes the dog and brings it into his house.
But when the dog bites Dean, he's forced to summon familiar authorities.
[knocks on door]
You can't take my dog.
He bit me, I called the animal control.
Mindy never bit anyone.
Neither my dog, Nancy. Think about it.
Give him back!
[door locks]
The Kellers don't give the dog back until the police get there.
Dean tells them that this dog has bit him.
The animal control officers come out do an investigation
and ended up giving a warning to Jeffrey and Nancy.
Jeffrey was very angry about this.
If my neighbor took my dog, I'd be very angry about that.
[owl hooting]
[narrator] That night, Jeff sees his opportunity
to get back in Nancy's good graces.
I really felt sorry for Nancy.
I think that Jeffrey took advantage of the situation.
I'm worried he's gonna do it again.
No kidding.
I don't want that.
I'm not sure whether Nancy's thought process
to align with Jeff was out of fear
or she actually did believe
and was falling in line with his thought process.
[narrator] And Nancy has a change of heart.
Maybe you should stay.
Maybe that's best for the three of us.
It was just further proof in my mind
that he was completely in control.
At this stage, we realized he was never going away.
You're the moron, fool!
- You're the moron! - The setback pushes Dean to his breaking point.
Imagine constantly having to live on edge in your own home.
Nancy told police she had heard Dean say
that he was going to kill Jeffrey someday.
Oh, I swear I'm gonna kill you one day!
But at the time, she didn't think that it was serious.
She just chalked it up to more talk between them.
[narrator] Both Dean and Jeff claim the other has made deadly threats,
but one man is about to go a step further.
You just see it getting out of hand here,
and how it goes over years and years and years
and builds and builds and builds.
Never in a million years could anyone have expected
what was about to happen next.
Well, pretty much like any other day,
Dean wanted to go out to the garden,
wanted me to come out there with him.
Jeff's out mowing the lawn.
I did my best to ignore him.
And he comes up and messes with the fence.
[bleep]
He starts to get into a confrontation with Dean,
trying to provoke him.
And Jeffrey says an insult to Dean's wife.
Certainly, that's enough to get any man angry and ready to fight.
[lawnmower engine revving]
He puts the lawnmower in reverse.
What now?
And he pulls out a revolver and brings it up.
Jeff has a gun.
And I look at Dean and I realized he hasn't drawn,
and watch in disbelief and horror.
Get back!
- Easy, Jeff. - I told him not to, don't shoot me.
Get back!
I reached for my weapon.
The firearm that he has is pointed upwards,
he's bringing it down.
I draw my weapon, hit him with the first shot.
[gunshots]
I fired 11 rounds total.
He's fallen off the lawnmower.
Jeffrey fires some shots back.
My husband is returning fire.
There's no cover back here.
We can't get away from him.
Dean and Lisa Keller move quickly to protect their lives.
My gun's empty. It's done me no good, I discard it.
Shots fired.
I know I've hit him. I know he's wounded pretty bad.
- [groaning] - Jeffrey, he has four bullets to the chest.
He's critically wounded.
But you see him miraculously stand up
and then walk towards his house...
[bleep]
...uttering one last insult.
[Lisa] I tell the dispatcher
that it's kind of staggering as he headed back to the house.
[yells, groans]
- Call 911! - What, what happened?
He just collapses onto the kitchen floor.
- He's bleeding profusely. - [gasps]
These four bullets certainly looked like they were gonna be fatal.
[siren wailing]
When the police arrive, Dean plays it safe.
I don't know what the cops are going to,
what their thought process is.
Police. Freeze!
I don't want to make any sudden moves
that's gonna get anybody else hurt.
I shot my neighbor.
He asked how he gets to the neighbor's house,
I tell him it's the next driveway to the north.
[indistinct talk on walkie-talkie]
By the time medics arrived, there's a whole lot of blood
and they have to cut his clothing
and work quickly to get him help
and get him to the hospital.
While Jeff is rushed into emergency surgery,
the investigation begins.
And officers try to interrogate Dean.
I really should speak to an attorney.
Dean exercises his rights to not speak to the police without an attorney.
But he is willing to share one piece of information.
They had noticed the camera was there,
so we tell the sheriff's department
they pull the camera and they review it.
We have a camera, but you don't know what it's captured.
[narrator] If Jeff doesn't survive
and the camera hasn't caught him pulling his gun first,
Dean could be charged with murder.
It looked like this might be the end for Jeffrey.
It's nothing short of a miracle that he made it.
Anybody who can take four bullets into the chest
and survive is very lucky.
Now that Jeff is able to tell his version of events,
there's even more importance placed on the video evidence.
Jeff's alive and all he kept saying was,
"The neighbor shot me, The neighbor shot me."
Luckily the video caught everything.
It's clear.
On the tape, you can see Jeffrey lift and hold a firearm.
Had I been one step to the left or right,
I could have been blocked the camera's view.
They wouldn't have caught him drawing the gun first.
That movement, that showing of the gun
was enough to justify self defense for what happened next.
You have a right to defend yourself in most states,
certainly in Indiana.
We find out later that the gun belonged to Nancy.
It was a 38 caliber.
And Jeffrey had taken it without her knowing.
[narrator] At the trial, a year later,
the incriminating video seals Jeff's fate.
Prosecutors charged Jeffrey with criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon.
He served six months with good time.
[door locks]
- Dean Keller... - [gunshots]
...is never charged with an offence.
It's like a weight being lifted off the shoulder.
- [gunshot] - How Jeff fired five rounds
and never once hit Dean, I will always be grateful for that.
- [gunshot] - Because truly,
as close as he was, there should have been no way he missed.
[gunshots]
When Jeff is released from jail...
[indistinct] the book.
...Nancy takes him back in.
It took him a long time to recover.
[Lisa] My first thought was disbelief,
completely caught off guard that she would get him back.
[narrator] But after she faces some health complications, Jeff moves on.
Jeffrey decided to leave.
It wouldn't have been the same easy living situation for him anymore.
[narrator] Nancy's daughter Dawn moves in to take care of her.
And for the first time in years,
the Keller family can finally relax.
[Lisa] I think it's hard to understand,
but the sense of relief that you get.
And you go outside and I don't have to look at that fence
and wonder whether or not Jeff's gonna walk out with a gun
and shoot somebody.
[Dean] It's been a learning experience for everybody involved.
It's a turning point for me, you know, hopefully,
it will be a turning point for him.
[Shipe] Throughout this whole process,
my brother Dean and my sister-in-law Lisa
have always kept in touch with Dawn.
- Hi. - [Dean] Hey.
[narrator] There's hope that these longtime neighbors can rekindle their bond.
We're good now.
[narrator] But the community will never be the same.
Greenwood, Indiana, is not, you know,
a place where you have a lot of shootings.
So, to have a neighbor shooting neighbor
in a community like Greenwood sort of, you know, resonates.
In this case, I guess, we get to take heart that no one died.