Residents predicted Montana bar shooting suspect would ‘snap’

ANACONDA, Mont. – ANACONDA, MT: Two residents of the rural Montana town that was rocked by an armed gunman’s alleged mass shooting at a local bar said members of the town had long predicted that he would snap. 

Two men in Anaconda, Montana, who requested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of their comments and the prevailing sentiment in town, told Fox News Digital that Michael Paul Brown was a “loose cannon” whose delusions were well known to residents long before he allegedly murdered four people in cold blood at the Owl Bar last Friday. 

“I’ve been to a couple of barbecues with him and what not, and he’s always been just kind of a loose cannon,” one man said. “We always joked about it. About him, like going nuts and just shooting.”

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“Like I got in a fight with him once and then someone was like, ‘You better watch yourself, he might kill you,’” the man said. “So, he was just always kinda not there.” 

The man explained that Brown, who grew up in Anaconda and was an armor crewman in the Army from January 2001 to May 2005 before serving in the National Guard from April 2006 to March 2008, would sometimes share fantastical stories that were well out of the realm of possibility. 

“He’s just a storyteller, you know, just maverick stories,” he said. “One of the stories that he told me is how he went and stole some artifact from some place, and then, like, killed a bunch of people and started a civil war.”

Both men claimed that while the narrative that Brown had been denied access to mental healthcare is popular among some locals and in the media, Brown actually declined the healthcare he may have needed. 

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“This family tried to get him out, and he never accepted it, you know,” the first man said, adding that even the owner of the Owl Bar that Brown frequented wanted to get him help. 

The second added that people “absolutely” tried to help Brown. 

“He denied service,” that man said. “What I understand, there was a couple families that was trying to get him to get [help].”

Clare Boyle is Brown’s niece and an Anaconda resident. She told KXFL that Brown suffered from PTSD stemming from his time in the army, and from schizophrenia. 

“Mikee’s decline started really heavily when my grandma passed,” she told the outlet. “The trauma from losing his last parent broke Mikee.”

Brown’s mom died in 2021. 

“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,” Boyle said. “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.”

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“My heart breaks for this town,” she said. “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.”

Boyle has not returned multiple comment requests from Fox News Digital this week. 

The men also dispelled a rumor that Brown had been denied service at the bar on Thursday, July 31, which some have posited as a motive for the shooting. They said that Brown had carried out the alleged killings with premeditation. 

“Like I said, he just decided to do that that day, like he didn’t get kicked out of the bar or nothing. He just walked in there and shot them,” the first man said. “That could have been anybody in there at the time.”

Meanwhile, the town of 9,000 people remains on edge. 

“It’s a small-town community,” the man said. “It hit pretty damn hard. That stuff don’t happen out here. So that’s got people freaked out about it.” 

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Brown is suspected of killing 59-year-old Daniel Edwin Baillie, 64-year-old Nancy Lauretta Kelley, 70-year-old David Allen Leach and 74-year-old Tony Wayne Palm. All of the victims were from Anaconda. 

Shortly after the massacre, police tracked down a white Ford F-150 associated with Brown but did not locate him. That truck was equipped with outdoor supplies and food. 

At the time of the manhunt, Brown was described by authorities as “armed and extremely dangerous.”