http://www.katu.com/news/local/5739626.html
Two ranchers dead in cattle dispute
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Four cows that had gone missing from their spread in Eastern Oregon led cattlemen Dennis Beach and his son, Travis, to a cousin's ranch about eight miles away.
What happened next was like a scene out of the Old West - a tragedy of cousin against cousin, a man shot off his horse by a lever-action rifle, and two dead ranchers. It's a tale as tangled as tumbleweeds in barbed wire.
The ranch owner, Tom Beach, wasn't there when Dennis and Travis Beach arrived to fetch their cows. But the ranch caretakers were: Shane Huntsman and Donna Carol Beach Dunning, who is Tom Beach's sister.
An argument over ownership of the cattle ensued.
"This ends now," Huntsman told Dennis and Travis Beach, according to an affidavit filed in court by a Wallowa County deputy sheriff.
Huntsman killed Dennis Beach, shooting him off his horse with a .30-30 caliber rifle. Travis scuffled with Huntsman, who hit Travis in the head with a rock. Travis wrestled the rifle from Huntsman and shot him, according to the affidavit.
The Wallowa County district attorney has decided not to press charges against Travis Beach for Huntsman's death, saying he acted in self-defense.
But the case isn't over.
Donna Dunning has been charged with trying to kill 28-year-old Travis Beach. According to court papers, she gave Huntsman the rock he used to hit Travis Beach while urging Huntsman to "finish him off." She has pleaded not guilty.
Dennis, Travis and Tom Beach and Dorothy Dunning are descended from a pair of brothers who ranched together for decades and a family that traces its roots in Wallowa County back a century.
The confrontation occurred on Jan. 18 on ranchland about 40 miles north of Enterprise, an area where the Beach brothers had originally settled.
Tom Beach was out of state at the time of the shooting and his wife Laura was in town, said Sheriff Fred Steen.
Dennis and Travis Beach went to Tom Beach's spread, perhaps eight miles away, to retrieve four cows.
More than a month earlier, Laura Beach contacted the brand inspector to inform him that four cows that belonged to someone else were on the ranch.
"Which is what you're supposed to do, when you discover you have cows that don't belong to you," Steen told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from his office in Enterprise.
The sheriff said he's still investigating how Dennis Beach's cows wound up there.
"But it's not unusual for cows to wander off the range and end up at someone else's place," he said.
Laura Beach was aware that Dennis and Travis Beach would come and get their cows, "maybe not that day but at some point," Steen said. On the day of the shooting, three of the cows were already penned in a corral, as if they were waiting to be picked up.
The affidavit filed by Deputy Sheriff Eric J. Kozowski lays out what happened after Dennis Beach and his son arrived. It is based on interviews with Travis Beach and Donna Carol Beach Dunning.
Dennis Beach and Huntsman argued about ownership of the cows, the affidavit states. But Steen said the argument may have gone beyond the ownership of cattle. He wouldn't elaborate.
Huntsman went into the house and returned with Donna Dunning, and with a .30-30 lever-action rifle.
Huntsman ordered father and son to get down in the snow. Travis did, but Dennis wouldn't. Huntsman then shot Dennis Beach in the chest, knocking him off his horse, the document states.
Travis tackled Huntsman and struggled for the rifle. Dunning yelled at Huntsman to "finish him off" and "cave his skull in," the affidavit says. According to the document, she gave Huntsman a rock, and he hit Travis Beach in the head with it.
Travis Beach managed to grab the rifle but was unable to aim it because the scope was filled with snow, so "he pointed it as best he could at Shane" and fired, the affidavit says. Beach was unsure if he had struck Huntsman, and recalled seeing him run behind a barn, the affidavit says.
Beach drove to an Oregon Department of Transportation shop and called 911. His head cut and bloodied, Travis Beach wept as he told a deputy what happened at Tom Beach's ranch.
Deputies found Dennis Beach and Huntsman dead near a barn. They also found four spent .30-30 casings and a bloody rock.
Donna Dunning was inside the house with some relatives including a sister, said Steen, "which was a little puzzling."
People in Eastern Oregon have been rattled by the shooting. Even though spaces are vast and the population is sparse, it's a close-knit part of Oregon.
"The impact is severe," said Sheriff Steen. "It's been very traumatic."
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