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CNN
3 days ago
- CNN
One town, four victims, seven days of fear: The hunt for a man who gunned down locals at a bar in a small Montana town
Time stood still for the locals of a small Montana town nestled in a quiet, scenic mountain valley after an Army veteran shot dead four bar patrons and went into hiding. For seven days, the quiet charm of Anaconda gave way to fear as the town's residents slept beside their guns at night and eyed their once peaceful, tree-lined neighborhoods that had become potential hiding places for a mass murderer on the run. On August 1, Michael Paul Brown walked into The Owl Bar near his home in Anaconda and fatally shot Daniel Baillie, 59; Nancy Kelley, 64; David Leach, 70; and Tony Palm, 74, authorities said. Brown had irrevocably scarred a beloved gathering spot, known for its cozy, neon-lit interior plastered with glowing beer logo signs and posters jeering with bawdy bar jokes and wisecracks. 'He knew everybody that was in that bar. I guarantee you that,' owner David Gwerder told The Associated Press. 'He didn't have any running dispute with any of them. I just think he snapped.' It's still unclear whether Brown was targeting any of the victims or if he shot them randomly. Brown's niece, Clare Boyle, previously told CNN he struggled with his mental health during his time in the Army and was never the same after his service. Upon fleeing The Owl Bar after the deadly shooting, Brown briefly went to his home before hiding in another structure down the street, authorities said Friday. Security footage showed Brown barefoot and wearing only underwear as he left that structure, where he ditched his clothing and other personal items. He then stole a white Ford F-150 truck, authorities said. 'He was identified almost immediately when he got in that vehicle and took off,' Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen said. The challenge was 'an almost identical vehicle pulled into the highway in front of him, and so law enforcement wasn't sure which white F-150 he was in,' Knudsen said. It was still early morning when hospitals, day care centers and local businesses received a chilling emergency alert ordering them to lock down immediately. 'Once that happened, the news spread like wildfire,' local Randy Clark, a retired police officer, told CNN. When Clark stepped outside his home, he was immediately engulfed by a massive dust cloud kicked up by speeding law enforcement vehicles. For an entire week, the flashing blue and red lights of police vehicles cast eerie glows inside residents' homes, while helicopters and drones hummed relentlessly overhead. Neighbors and businesses bolted their doors and watched anxiously from behind curtains as police swarmed the streets. Armed and on edge, every unfamiliar noise sparked dozens of false alarms. Last Sunday morning, the house beside Clark's was crowded with SWAT vehicles when a young girl in the home awoke to a loud noise downstairs, triggering a false alarm. 'They responded to every call. They followed up on every tip. They spent hours climbing over these mountains looking for this criminal. They used every resource available to them to search for him,' Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte said about authorities' efforts to find Brown. The grueling manhunt was unwavering, with 250 law enforcement personnel traversing challenging terrain in the western Montana wilderness. The dozens of agencies searching for Brown included the FBI, Anaconda Deer Lodge County Police, the Granite County Sheriff's Office and the Denver office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Authorities locked down the Barker Lake area of the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest last weekend as local, state and federal agencies searched by land and air, the Montana Department of Justice said. 'The type of terrain, it's very challenging, so we have expanded our perimeters to look in different areas,' Montana Division of Criminal Investigation Administrator Lee Johnson said previously. Anaconda resident Dan Haffey, who was a fire foreman for the Montana Division of Forestry, knows the area well. He told CNN his team would cut trails into Garrity Mountain for hikers. 'There's a thousand places to hide on that mountain,' Haffey said. 'I've been on forest fires, and in that drainage up there, and (there are) 5,000 acres. That mountain is gigantic.' Investigators eventually found the truck Brown had stolen, but he 'was not located in or around the vehicle,' Johnson said at the time. On Friday, after a weeklong manhunt, Brown was found armed around 2 p.m. local time about 5-and-a-half miles away from the shooting scene. He is now in the custody of Anaconda-Deer Lodge County authorities, according to Knudsen. Authorities on Friday declined to comment on which charges will be filed against the suspect. CNN is working to determine whether Brown has retained an attorney. Tips from the public were crucial in locating Brown, who was 'flushed out' and found in an area authorities had previously searched and cleared, Knudsen said. On Thursday, there were about 130 personnel in the area where Brown was found, according to Knudsen. 'We think that was directly correlated to flushing him out today, getting him down into an area that we know we had searched before,' Knudsen said Friday. 'It's not someplace he'd been hiding.' With the suspect in custody, authorities say they will now seek justice for the families of the victims. Meanwhile, the community of Anaconda is cautiously moving toward a sense of normalcy. Businesses have unlocked their doors again and locals have set aside their guns to find comfort in grieving together and supporting one another, Clark said. He added several restaurants are donating a portion of their sales to help support The Owl Bar. 'It's always terrible for the victims' families and friends to lose someone like that, in such a terrible way,' Clark said. 'I'm sure at The Owl Bar, every time somebody drives by or goes in, or the name of any of the victims comes up, it will just bring everything back up, but the whole saying is, 'time heals wounds.'' CNN's Dalia Faheid, Josh Campbell, Michelle Watson, Taylor Galgano, Jillian Sykes and Elizabeth Wolfe contributed to this report.
CNN
06-08-2025
- CNN
The Owl Bar was the place where everybody knew your name. Then, a familiar face walked in and opened fire
Under the buzz of neon lights and cluttered walls and ceilings of The Owl Bar, bartender Cassandra Dutra spends many of her nights catering to the familiar faces crowding her counter, often losing track of the number of rounds the regulars have bought each other as the hours grow late. Dutra lives a stone's throw from the timeworn neighborhood bar in her small Montana town of Anaconda. She sometimes feels like a cast member in the sitcom 'Cheers' – the second home where everybody knows your name. So after a gunman opened fire inside the bar Friday morning, Dutra quickly realized she knew each of the people killed, including her coworker Nancy Kelley and three of her regulars: Daniel Baillie, David Leach and Tony Palm. 'They're people I care about. These are people I spend every day with,' Dutra said. She knew Tony was one of the victims when she saw his truck parked outside on the morning of the shooting, just as it was at the same time every day. The suspected shooter, Michael Brown, was no stranger, either. 'People know who he is,' said Dutra, noting Brown frequented the bar. 'He knows a good majority of people, too, because he was raised here, but he wasn't part of the camaraderie.' One of Brown's relatives, who asked to remain anonymous out of concern for their privacy, told CNN they also worked at the bar for years and knew all four people who were killed. Brown, who lived next door to The Owl Bar, has been on the run for six days after authorities say he fled the scene. As dozens of agencies scour the dense forests and mountains that bookend the town, residents are privately grieving the tragedy at a bar that holds a special place in their hearts – and the history of the region. 'It's the most incredible atmosphere. Everybody loves each other so much in there,' Dutra said. 'It wasn't your typical rowdy partying. … When you walked in the bar, every single person that was sitting in the bar knew who you were.' Nearly every inch of the bar's narrow interior is plastered with glowing beer logo signs, neon strip lights and posters jeering with bawdy bar jokes and wisecracks. A photo from 2022 shows a sign above the bar reading, 'Prices subject to change according to customers attitude.' Another: 'Don't like guns? Don't buy one!' Painted ceiling panels stretch over high-back booths, a juke box and a pool table, forming an overhead checkerboard of local business advertisements, sports team logos and alcohol branding. 'It's such a happy little town, and that's just a happy little tight knit place,' Dutra said of the bar. It's hard to pin down how old The Owl Bar is, but the local consensus is it is really, truly old, and it has the lore and the memorabilia to (kind of) prove it. 'It's the longest-standing bar in Anaconda,' said 31-year-old resident Sierra Fitzpatrick. 'It's been here – shoot – before I was even here. It's just a staple.' Some locals swear its first iteration opened in the 1880s, and one resident told CNN he believes the portrait of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt pinned behind the bar has been there since he was elected in 1932. The Montana Standard dates the bar to at least the 1960s, when the town was the cradle of a massive copper smelting operation run by the Anaconda Copper Company. Though the project was decommissioned in 1980, the town still lives in the shadow of 'The Stack,' a brick smelter taller than the Washington Monument where Anaconda men went to work for decades. Smelter workers would frequent The Owl Bar in those days, when 'three shots and a beer could be had for $1.50,' according to a 2018 report from The Montana Standard. Resident Chris McNaughton said his great-grandfather Hank Walsh, who worked at the smelter, 'would stop at The Owl for a beer and a shot of Irish whiskey on his way home on the trolley.' The bar has become the backdrop of decades of McNaughton's family history, he said. Since 1980, they have held an annual family reunion at the bar – canceling only during the Covid-19 pandemic – where they play games, hand out family awards and raise a glass to his great-grandfather. 'We were thankful this weekend because if the shooter had decided to wait one more day, our family of 70 or more people would have all been packed in that little bar,' he said. 'We will return to The Owl next summer.' On the morning of the shooting, Dutra said, she stood on the sidewalk for four hours watching The Owl Bar be surrounded by SWAT teams and swarms of law enforcement. When she finally tried to leave her block, she said, she had to duck under crime scene tape. It's a scene she could not have fathomed before. 'It's just so much to wrap your head around in a community like Anaconda,' Dutra said. But even as the search for the suspect wears on, residents are trying their best to support the owner of the bar, David Gwerder, and honor the memories of lost friends. Dutra is still coming to terms with losing Kelley, a nurse-turned-bartender who had recently retired from a long career caring for cancer patients. 'It just is an extremely unfair ending for somebody who spent their entire life dedicated to cancer patients and making a huge difference,' Dutra said. Fitzpatrick said she hopes people will prioritize the victims and have deeper discussions about mental health after the suspect's family members and several residents expressed Brown had long struggled with mental illness. 'I really hope that we can truly fight for mental health, really be considerate of the person sitting next to you,' Fitzpatrick said. She has been heartened to see local businesses going out of their way to feed and care for first responders – an action she said is characteristic of tight-knit Anaconda. Once The Owl Bar reopens, Fitzpatrick will be there to support Gwerder and show up for Anaconda. '(David) takes a lot of pride in his bar, and I respect that a lot,' said Fitzpatrick. 'I would 110% give my support to The Owl Bar' once they reopen. CNN's Michelle Watson and Sarah Dewberry contributed to this report.
