road. then, robby says diren suddenly walked off in a different direction, and robby lost sight of him. i was like, he s not coming. i ll continue walking. reporter: robby says he called out to diren, but there was no answer, so he kept walking, figuring diren would catch up. that is when, like, i heard someone yelling. you re there. i see you there. something like that. after that just the shots, like, three or four shots. and i just started running. reporter: gunshots in a quiet residential neighborhood. a now-terrified robby ran back home. he was faster than i am. i said, he s probably coming. i was almost sure that he was coming. reporter: but diren wouldn t return. and what happened to the german exchange student would simultaneously make headlines around the world and get americans asking, how far can you go to protect your home and family?
as robby described it, diren was not the first kid in missoula to go sneaking into unlocked garages. he said the kids weren t after money, credit cards or valuables. this stunt happened often enough that it had a name, garage hopping. and the target was usually beer. the reason for garage hopping, or garage shopping, i ve heard it called both, was for kids to go in and look for alcoholic beverages that they could easily get and take. until this shooting, that sort of wasn t on anybody s radar in law enforcement? no. i had not heard of garage hopping. no. reporter: these three friends of diren s say they ve never gone garage hopping, but they know all about it. you all know people who do it or have done it? yeah. right? they understand it s illegal? uh-huh. yeah. but it seemed harmless? yeah. exactly. i mean, it s just it s like, hey, dude, this is a way for you to get some extra beer, you know, on a saturday night.
markus kaarma, twice a victim of burglars, reasonably thought that diren dede was another one and dangerous. he thought that he was dealing with drug-seeking type individuals that were erratic and who knows what they how they were gonna respond. reporter: he told the jury that his client had reason to believe diren dede was armed and ready to attack. and because he felt his life was threatened by the movement, specifically, of mr. dede, he had to take the steps, unfortunately, to take his life. the danger of a burglar is when there s a confrontation, and they all want to escape, and they ll do whatever they can to get away. reporter: the defense said there was no debate over one central fact. diren dede went into that garage to steal. and on the stand, kaarma s lawyer got diren s friend robby to admit that despite warnings, diren didn t see much wrong with
sound of gunshots ricocheted through the prospect neighborhood of missoula, montana. 911. what are you reporting? um, a robbery. okay. what s going on? someone entered into our garage. shots were fired. reporter: a robbery was rare in prospect, but a shooting was unheard of. dash cams captured the chaos as first responders raced to the scene. stay to the right. what s the number? stop, stop, stop. it was all happening just a few hundred feet from where foreign exchange student diren dede lived with his host family. i kind of woke up with a start. heard four loud pops, bang, bang, bang, fairly close together. a pause, and then another bang. reporter: randy heard the sirens and got out of bed. so i went downstairs, just to make sure i could lay my hands on robby and diren.
and then turned on to deer canyon road. then, robby says diren suddenly walked off in a different direction, and robby lost sight of him. i was like, he s not coming. i ll continue walking. reporter: robby says he called out to diren, but there was no answer, so he kept walking, figuring diren would catch up. that is when, like, i heard someone yelling. you re there. i see you there. something like that. after that just the shots, like, three or four shots. and i just started running. reporter: gunshots in a quiet residential neighborhood. a now-terrified robby ran back home. he was faster than i am. i said, he s probably coming. i was almost sure that he was coming. reporter: but diren wouldn t return. and what happened to the german exchange student would simultaneously make headlines around the world and get americans asking, how far can you go to protect your home and family?