Judge sets $2M bail for man suspected of killing 4 in Anaconda bar

Michael Paul Brown, 45, suspected of fatally shooting four Aug. 1 in an Anaconda bar, made a brief initial appearance via video Monday in Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Justice Court.

He appeared around 11 a.m. from the Butte-Silver Bow County Detention Center, where he has been jailed since being captured Friday at a trailer west of Anaconda after a law enforcement raid.

Brown affirmed to Justice of the Peace Ken Walund that he would like to be represented by a court-appointed public defender. He was accompanied by Butte lawyer Walter Hennessey, who said he would help Brown fill out the necessary application.

The brief hearing did not list the charges faced by Brown.

A clerk for the Anaconda-Deer Lodge County District Court said Monday that all court filings against Brown are sealed.

Walund set bail at $2 million and described a host of conditions that would take effect if he made bond, which would seem unlikely.

Brown confirmed his address has been 815 E. Third St. in Anaconda, near the Owl Bar on East 3rd St. He said he does not work.

Authorities allege Brown shot and killed four people in the Owl Bar in Anaconda on the morning of Aug. 1. They say he changed clothes in a building nearby, stole a Ford F-150 pickup and fled west, ending up on Stumptown Road, a rural gravel road, with police in pursuit.

He drove up a rugged road in the vicinity of Garrity Mountain and the Garrity Mountain Wildlife Management Area a few miles west of Anaconda, abandoned the truck and fled, authorities reported.

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen said Aug. 3 that Brown used a rifle to kill the bartender at the Owl Bar and three patrons — all of whom he apparently knew. Knudsen declined to say more about the firearm.

In the days that followed, hundreds of law enforcement personnel searched the area near Garrity Mountain, territory local hunters and outdoorsman said offered many good places to hide. Searchers ventured into the thick aspen groves, lodgepole deadfall and shrub thickets with the assumption the man they sought was armed and dangerous.

Brown, a veteran of the U.S. Army, was said by acquaintances to suffer from mental disorders that probably included post-traumatic stress disorder.

A collaborative effort by local, state and federal law enforcement agencies captured Brown Aug. 8 at a trailer more than 5 miles west of Anaconda off Montana Highway 1. Authorities confirmed he was armed.

The victims of the Aug. 1 shootings were bartender Nancy Lauretta Kelley, 64, Daniel Edwin Baillie, 59, David Allen Leach, 70, and Tony Wayne Palm, 74.