A fierce neighborhood conflict that exploded after a 13-year-old boy swung on a tree branch outside a Colorado Springs townhome until the limb snapped shows no sign of ending five years later.

Neighbors menaced each other with baseball bats. The aggrieved tree owner, Ronald Dwayne Brown, fired a gun. Colorado Springs police deployed a robot to breach Brown’s front door. Police blew a hole into the floor of Brown’s home and inadvertently broke his leg.

It’s unclear how long the fight that began on May 27, 2012, will last.

But on Tuesday, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that former Colorado Springs Police Chief Peter Carey and 15 other sergeants, lieutenants, officers, SWAT team members, bomb technicians and emergency negotiators could not be sued as individuals because of qualified immunity.

Read full story at The Denver Post.

This photo shows damage done to the Colorado Springs home of Ronald Dwayne Brown by the Colorado Springs Police Department’s bomb squad on May 30, 2012.(Ronald Dwayne Brown, supplied)

This photo shows damage done to the Colorado Springs home of Ronald Dwayne Brown by the Colorado Springs Police Department’s bomb squad on May 30, 2012. (Ronald Dwayne Brown, supplied)

This photo shows injuries to Ronald Dwayne Brown by the Colorado Springs Police Department’s bomb squad on May 30, 2012. (Ronald Dwayne Brown, supplied)

This photo shows damage done to the Colorado Springs home of Ronald Dwayne Brown by the Colorado Springs Police Department’s bomb squad on May 30, 2012.(Ronald Dwayne Brown, supplied)

This photo shows damage done to the Colorado Springs home of Ronald Dwayne Brown by the Colorado Springs Police Department’s bomb squad on May 30, 2012. (Ronald Dwayne Brown, supplied)

This photo shows injuries to Ronald Dwayne Brown by the Colorado Springs Police Department’s bomb squad on May 30, 2012. (Ronald Dwayne Brown, supplied)