Montana Town on Lockdown After Deadly Bar Shooting Sparks Manhunt

A quiet morning in Anaconda, Montana, turned tragic when a gunman opened fire at The Owl Bar on 3rd Street, killing four people and prompting a massive manhunt for the suspect, identified as 45-year-old Michael Paul Brown. The shooting, which occurred around 10:30 a.m. on Friday, August 1, has left the small town of 9,000 in lockdown as authorities scour the rugged terrain west of the city for the armed and dangerous suspect.

The Montana Division of Criminal Investigation, leading the probe, confirmed that all four victims—a bartender and three patrons—were pronounced dead at the scene. Public records show Brown lived just two houses away from The Owl Bar, a historic establishment built in 1893 to serve copper smelter workers. A SWAT team cleared Brown’s residence shortly after the incident, but he remains at large, last spotted in the Stumptown area, a wooded region west of Anaconda. Authorities, including over a dozen local and state police officers, the Montana Highway Patrol, FBI, and ATF, have deployed helicopters, drones, and K9 units to search the mountainous terrain.

Brown, a former Army sergeant and Montana National Guard member who served in Iraq from 2004 to 2005, is believed to have longstanding untreated mental health issues, according to a relative, Jacob Burns. “He didn’t struggle with alcoholism, contrary to rumors, but he wasn’t getting proper care for his mental health,” Burns told Channel2 NOW. The bar’s owner, David Gwerder, who was not present during the shooting, said Brown likely knew all the victims but had no known disputes with them. “I think he just snapped,” Gwerder speculated.

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The incident has rattled Anaconda, a tight-knit community 75 miles southeast of Missoula, founded in the late 1800s by copper barons. The town, overshadowed by a now-defunct smelter stack, is unaccustomed to such violence. The last comparable tragedy in Deer Lodge County was a 2015 murder-suicide that claimed five lives. Local businesses, including the Firefly Café, locked their doors after the shooting. “We’re Montana, so guns aren’t new to us, but for our town to be locked down, everybody’s pretty rattled,” said café owner Barbie Nelson, who awaited an all-clear signal hours after the incident. Nearby, Sage Huot, owner of Caterpillars to Butterflies Childcare, kept children indoors, relying on active shooter drills to ensure safety.

Governor Greg Gianforte expressed solidarity, stating on X, “I’m closely monitoring the situation involving an active shooter in Anaconda. Please join Susan and me in praying for the victims, their loved ones, and the brave law enforcement officers responding to this tragedy.” Senator Steve Daines noted that police drones are aiding the “massive manhunt.” Residents have been urged to avoid Stumptown Road and Anderson Ranch Loop Road and to report sightings of Brown, described as wearing a tie-dye shirt, blue jeans, and an orange bandana, to Anaconda-Deer Lodge Law Enforcement at (406) 563-5241.

The motive remains unclear, and the victims’ names have not been released pending family notifications. The Montana State Prison in nearby Deer Lodge is on lockdown as a precaution due to its proximity to the search area. As the manhunt stretches into its second day, Anaconda remains on edge, grappling with a rare and devastating act of violence in a community where, as Nelson put it, “we all probably know someone who was there.”

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