Zen Zimmerman of Fiddletown was arrested on suspicion of murder after having warned emergency dispatchers he might shoot his neighbor, John O'Sullivan. John O'Sullivan of Fiddletown was found dead on his tractor Sunday night by deputies from the Amador County Sheriff's Office. He had apparently been shot to death after a fight with Zimmerman.

Amador County experienced its first fatal shooting of the year Sunday night when an escalating feud between property owners ended in bloodshed.

The incident became known to law enforcement around 7:45 p.m. when emergency dispatchers learned that a potentially serious fight was occurring in the remote countryside above Fiddletown. Officials from the Amador County Sheriff's Office said that dispatchers had received a call from Kenneth John Zimmerman, a 56-year-old man who lives on Jura Lane just past the secluded fields around Hale Road. During his emergency call, Zimmerman reported that his immediate neighbor, 47-year-old John Michael O'Sullivan, had broken through his gate on a tractor. Zimmerman went on to tell the dispatchers that O'Sullivan had struck him in the face with an open hand and then attempted to run him over with the tractor.

Zimmerman ended his phone call by telling authorities that the sheriff's office better hurry up and get there "before I shoot him."

Exactly 13 minutes after Zimmerman's call was first received by dispatchers, O'Sullivan's wife, Krista Clem, made her own 911 call. Clem told dispatchers that she'd heard several gunshots and couldn't find her husband.

Sheriff's deputies arrived on the scene within 10 minutes of Clem's call. They arrived to find Zimmerman blocking the roadway with a vehicle. When questioned, Zimmerman told the deputies that O'Sullivan was near the gate he'd driven through. He also informed them that the gun he'd fired was in his house.

The officers soon discovered O'Sullivan dead on his tractor in a cluster of brush near the side of the road - the apparent victim of multiple gunshot wounds.

Detectives from the sheriff's office executed a search warrant on Zimmerman's property and home. They characterized the investigation as "open and ongoing."

Zimmerman was arrested and booked into the Amador County Jail on suspicion of murder. He is currently being held without bail.