At about 10:30 a.m. on Friday, August 1, 2025, a man walked into the Owl Bar in Anaconda and began shooting, killing a bartender and three customers.
Authorities quickly identified the suspect as 45-year-old Michael Brown. The victims have been identified by law enforcement, but their names have not yet been released.
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Law enforcement officers from several agencies began searching for Brown, concentrating their efforts in the mountains near Stumptown Road just west of Anaconda.
Later in the day, authorities found the truck that he fled in, but Brown was not in it.
As of Saturday afternoon, Brown remains at large, and the massive manhunt continues, with law enforcement agencies searching by ground and air for him.
MTN News
Randy Clark, an Anaconda resident with nearly 40 years of law enforcement experience in Georgia, said he saw the search unfold.
“I heard a lot of sirens and vehicles coming up Highway 1, so I stepped outside, and all these Highway Patrol vehicles and local law enforcement came zipping by. Then they turned and went down Stumptown Road,” Clark said.
Clark, a former Cobb County Police Department officer, moved to Anaconda for “a little peace and quiet,” but said the last few days have been anything but.
“It was a restless night for everyone here, all my neighbors — just not knowing,” he said.
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Trys Gates, a lifelong Anaconda resident, said it is difficult to imagine something like this happening in town.
“I’m looking and thinking, ‘Oh shoot, that’s a few blocks from my house.’ I see him in there as a regular, so for something like this to happen in a small town, I mean, I think we are all still in shock,” Gates said.
According to Clare Boyle, the niece of Brown, she and her family are heartbroken over the situation and the four lives that were lost.
Boyle said, “My heart breaks for this town. There is no amount of apology or words that could ever describe how sorry I am and how I feel for these families, my own included.”
Clare Boyle
She said that Brown suffered from significant mental health challenges, including schizophrenia and PTSD from serving in the Army. Boyle said Brown moved around a lot and was a military brat, as his father also served.
According to Lt. Ruth Castro, an Army spokesperson, Brown served in the U.S. Army as an armor crewman from 2001 to 2005 and was deployed to Iraq from early 2004 until March 2005.
Brown was in the National Guard from 2006 to March 2009, Castro said. He left military service with the rank of sergeant.
Boyle told MTN that Brown’s schizophrenia worsened after losing his mother. “Mikey’s decline started really heavily when my grandma passed. The trauma from losing his last parent broke Mikey. The VA said he no longer qualified for assistance with obtaining prescriptions and help.”
According to Boyle, Brown sometimes had delusions about being a time traveler.
She noted, “He no longer drank alcohol because it ‘blocked his wizard powers’…Mikey is harmless 99% of the time when others aren’t asking him about and making fun of his delusions.”
Boyle says her family tried to get help for Brown through both the Montana VA and the Montana State Hospital.
She said, “The VA said he no longer qualified for assistance with obtaining prescriptions and help. The Montana State Hospital wouldn’t take him in unless it was a court order. The only way to obtain a court order was for Mikee to become a harm to himself or others. We warned them that a snap could happen and that he was not of sound mind, and we were still left with no answers and nowhere to turn.”
Anyone who sees Brown is advised to call 911 immediately, or call if they have any information regarding his location.
