Documents, details released about 2025 mass shooting in Anaconda

Court documents released after a recent order from a district court judge add details to the Aug. 1, 2025 shooting of four people in Anaconda.

Michael Paul Brown is alleged to have entered the Owl Bar in Anaconda that day and killed Daniel Baillie, Nancy Kelley, David Leach and Tony Palm.

A massive manhunt ensued and Brown was apprehended a week later. 

Documents in the case were sealed in late August 2025 and were released on May 8, 2026, after a coalition of media organizations filed to unseal the documents. The Daily Montanan, Montana Free Press, The Montana Newspaper Association, Montana Broadcasters Association, Lee Enterprises, Inc. and the Montana Freedom of Information Coalition filed to enter the case in a limited capacity and were denied by an Anaconda Deer Lodge County district judge.

The coalition appealed to the Supreme Court, which found the press had been denied a chance to participate in the arguments about whether to seal the records.

An evidentiary hearing, where the coalition would have argued why unsealing the documents was in the public’s interest, was eventually scheduled after the state Supreme Court handed down its decision. State lawyers and attorneys for Brown changed course and the records were released.

Brown’s mental health evaluation remains sealed.

As part of a tranche of case documents released, one document, filed by the state on Sept. 2, 2025 in support of its charges, added significant narrative detail to the case.

Brown, documents say, “endorsed several reasons that the events occurred” including Brown believing he was the rightful owner of the bar and that a jukebox in the bar was “digitally brainwashing” him.

Brown lived next door to the bar.

At 10:37 a.m., on Aug. 1, Anaconda Deer Lodge County law enforcement went to a report of shots fired at the bar. Officers discovered four bodies and called for medical and fire teams, and began to review surveillance footage from the bar.

Brown allegedly initially entered the bar with a bucket and a pizza box, according to the video footage and evidence. The bucket was later identified as “containing a liquid believed to be lighter fluid, matches, spray paint cans, and small green Coleman style propane canisters.”

Court documents state Brown can then be seen lighting the pizza box on fire and putting it on top of the bucket. A bar employee began to stomp on the pizza box in an effort to put the fire out.

Brown then is alleged to have come back moments later with a rifle and shot four people in the bar. Officers found 7.62 x 39 casings, two fired bullets and a rifle cleaning rod at the scene. An SKS rifle was later recovered from Brown’s residence, which court documents say match a bullet recovered from the scene.

Brown then walked out of the bar with the rifle until he was out of the camera frame, court documents say.

Anaconda-Deer Lodge County law enforcement, along with agents from surrounding agencies and state agencies began to descend on the scene and set up a one-block perimeter around the Owl Bar and Brown’s residence, documents say. 

It is not clear how many law enforcement officers were on scene, who was in command, or if that command changed. The Montana Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment and Anaconda Deer Lodge Attorney Morgan Smith said the office does not comment on active investigations.

Brown was spotted outside the perimeter as he allegedly stole a truck while the driver had stopped nearby to drop off a friend’s cell phone. The driver approached law enforcement on the phone with the truck’s owner, and dispatch was able to confirm this was the vehicle that had been stolen.

“Officers observed the driver of the vehicle to match the description of Michael Brown, and a pursuit ensued,” Court documents say. “Officers from a number of different agencies engaged in the pursuit as nearly everyone on scene at the Owl Bar left to chase the white pickup.”

Law enforcement pursued the truck down East Third Street, Park Street and then eventually down Stumptown Road.

“Officers in dozens of vehicles traveled with lights and sirens through Anaconda,” court documents say.

An Anaconda Deer Lodge County officer and a state Department of Criminal Investigations agent met the vehicle as it turned off Stumptown Road into an unmarked trailhead that is informally referred to as the “sled hill,” court documents say.

Officers knew the road was a dead end and that it would become unusable for vehicle traffic. As the two law enforcement officers neared the end of vehicle access, they took a defensive position in case Brown came back at them, documents say.

“When officers realized that the vehicle had traveled into a rough terrain and had not come back down the trailhead, it was determined that officers would wait for backup before approaching the suspect vehicle,” court documents say. “Officers were unaware if Mr. Brown was armed at this time.”

Brown served in the U.S. Army from Jan. 2001 to May 2005 as part of an armored vehicle crew. He was deployed to Iraq and later was in the Montana National Guard from April 2006 to March 2009.

Court documents make little reference to the manhunt, simply saying it “involved officers from more than thirty-five different local, state and federal agencies.”

A list of all agencies involved is unclear, but did include state DCI, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Marshal’s Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Brown, following his capture, was advised of his rights and consented to a recorded interview with law enforcement.

“Mr. Brown acknowledged personally knowing all four individuals and commented that he ‘really liked them,’” court documents state.