Marred by grief and riddled with fear, a quiet city worries where a mass shooter might be

CTV News

6 days ago

This view of Anaconda, Montana, is from 2019. The Anaconda Smelter, which was in operation for 97 years before closing in 1980, looms in the background. (Louise Johns/Thevia CNN Newsource)
The anxiety pulsing through this idyllic swath of Montana is palpable – from the armored SWAT vehicles to the locked down businesses to the neighbours sleeping next to their guns.
For the past week, residents have oscillated between grief and fear after authorities said an Army veteran walked into The Owl Bar in Anaconda and opened fire.
The rampage killed four beloved neighbours in yet another American mass shooting in a place everyone thought was safe.
Hundreds of law enforcement officers from dozens of agencies have descended on the rugged wilderness of western Montana searching for suspect Michael Paul Brown – whom they believe is armed and dangerous.
'The whole mood of the community is scared and angry,' said Shane Charles, co-owner of Carmel's Sports Bar & Grill – just two blocks from the scene of the carnage.
'The devastating part is we knew every single one of the victims. Our hearts are broken for their families. I also knew the (suspected) shooter.'
Carmel's is a family-friendly restaurant that always welcomed everyone, day and night.
But with a killer on the loose, 'We have the doors locked. If somebody wants to come in and eat, we ask them to call or knock on the door,' Charles said.
'We have to be very safe at this point. We don't know where he's at. We don't know if he's going to come back into town.'
'They've inundated the area'
Across Anaconda, Randy Clark should be enjoying his retirement. The former police officer from suburban Atlanta moved across the country after he fell in love with the 'Norman Rockwell scene here.'
Lush forests give way to magnificent mountains and tranquil enclaves. A makeshift outdoor ice-skating rink in the winter and unique festivals add to the charm.
'It's a magical little town, and that's why I love it,' he said. 'That's why I came 2,300 miles to come out here and live.'
But now he lives directly across the street from an active manhunt zone – which stretches from Anaconda into the sprawling Garrity Mountain Wildlife Management Area.
(L-R) Daniel Edwin Baillie, Nancy Lauretta Kelley, David Allen Leach and Tony Wayne Palm
Daniel Edwin Baillie, Nancy Lauretta Kelley, David Allen Leach and Tony Wayne Palm (left to right) were killed at The Owl Bar in Anaconda. The suspect is an Army veteran who lived next door. (Montana Department of Justice via CNN Newsource)
Clark sees officers searching outside his home 'every day, 24/7.'
'They brought in other law enforcement from surrounding states, like with canine teams and things like that,' Clark said. 'So they've inundated the area with manpower.'
And the manhunt zone keeps growing. On Wednesday, authorities said 'investigative strategies and tactics are changing.'
'The search parameters are expanding and in the coming days you'll see more law enforcement present in West Valley and into Anaconda,' the Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Law Enforcement Center posted on social media.
Now, Clark regularly hears blaring police car sirens or a SWAT vehicle racing by – chasing the myriad tips that pour in.
'Sunday morning, there was a SWAT call out at the very house right next to me,' he said.
'The young girl next door … she was upstairs at like 5 in the morning. She heard a bump or some kind of noise downstairs and calls 911. Of course, they sent out the armored vehicle and the other SWAT team members to surround the house.'
The call turned out to be a false alarm. 'But there's probably hundreds of calls like that going on,' Clark said.
The heightened anxiety has led some neighbours to sleep with their guns right next to their beds, he said.
Life upended
One by one, the hallmarks of summer in the city of less than 10,000 started disappearing.
'We had the swimming pool for the kids that's closed. The movie theater is closed,' Charles said. 'Our whole community is scared.'
Anaconda's biggest festival of the year, Smeltermen's Day, is a three-day extravaganza honoring the city's deep history in smelting. The event features a parade, half-marathon, games and celebrations near the famous Anaconda Smoke Stack – a 585-foot-tall landmark that's taller than the Washington Monument.
'They were supposed to have the Smelterman's Day Festival this weekend,' Clark said. 'They cancelled the whole event.'
Organizers said the decision 'comes in light of the ongoing manhunt for the suspect involved in the recent tragic shooting at The Owl Bar, and out of respect for the lives impacted and lost.'
The relentless search for a killer has also led some business to shutter.
Clark's wife works at a bank that closed for several days. It's now reopened, but 'they're only taking customers through the drive-thru,' he said. 'You can't come inside to conduct business.'
Brian Diver works part-time at Carmel's and part-time at a casino that 'never closes' – until it did last Friday. While both businesses have reopened, Diver said he doesn't understand why much of the city shut down for the manhunt.
'His face has been pressed all over the country. He ain't coming back into town,' Diver said.
'And now that they got a bounty on him' – a $10,000 reward for information leading to Brown's capture – 'he ain't coming back into town, because people are going to collect on his bounty,' Diver said.
'This is small town America, and it's the Wild Wild West. The community would kill him if he showed back up in town.'
Carmel's Bar & Grill
The owners of Carmel's Bar & Grill in Anaconda have decided to keep doors locked around the clock while a killer is on the loose. Customers must call or knock on the door to be screened before entering. (Tamara Charles via CNN Newsource)
The suspect claimed to be John Wick and a CIA operative, locals say
Charles, who's keeping his restaurant doors locked around the clock, still can't fathom why a man he regularly played darts with would gun down four friends they both knew.
'I guarantee he knew all of them,' Charles said. 'But I don't know what triggered him to do what he did.'
He and the suspect played on the same darts league, and Brown would often come in to Carmel's and chat with the owners.
'Michael Brown would come in for lunch and talk to my wife and tell her stories that he was John Wick and he had a visible submarine … and was CIA operative, or the right-hand man for the president,' Charles said. 'So we heard all of his stories.'
Like Charles, the suspect is also a military veteran who was deployed to Iraq. Charles said he still grapples with PTSD and thought Brown was also suffering from the effects of war.
So he and his wife 'just sat and listened' to Brown's stories.
'We knew that he had some mental things,' Charles said. 'But we – we didn't really think it would come down to this.'
The last time Charles saw Brown was two days before the killings, when Brown was walking past Carmel's. Nothing about Brown struck him as odd that day, Charles said.
But now, he's trained all his restaurant staff to beware of their once regular customer and never let him in if he shows up.
'All my bartenders, all my wait staff, servers, cooks know who Michael Brown is,' Charles said. 'He could be anywhere.'
CNN's David Williams contributed to this report.
By Holly Yan, CNN