BOZEMAN — A standoff that lasted more than 24 hours took place in a house off 20th and Koch Street in Bozeman from Tuesday to Wednesday. Shattered windows and tire tracks from law enforcement are still visible in the lawn. But there's a side to this story that many people don’t think about: what happens to the other innocent tenants that live in this building?
“This is my room down here, where you see all the windows broken. You actually see, there's my bed right there,” says Michael Garahan, as he shows me photos of the damage done to his home.
I met up with Michael at the Bozeman Safety Center, after he interviewed with police about his front-row seat for the 27-hour standoff.
“Yeah, I was very afraid. I was afraid I was going to get shot,” says Michael.
Michael lives in the basement unit of the building, but he tells me this apartment wasn’t his first choice.
“This was the only person that called me. So that’s like, this is it. This is all I got. Unless you want to pay like $2,000 for your own apartment, which I can’t afford," he says.
Michael is a chef. He’s cooked in 40 different states and made his way to Montana around nine years ago. Last year he moved to Bozeman where he currently teaches at Gallatin College and substitutes for the Bozeman School District—work that Michael currently needs, but because of this standoff?
“I was supposed to do smoothie demos at two schools Friday and Monday, I had to cancel those. I had to cancel my work yesterday. I had to cancel my work today,” says Michael.
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I asked Michael to walk me through his Tuesday night, the night this standoff began.
“It was about 7:05 p.m. Because I was getting ready to watch the UK basketball game. And then all of a sudden, I see the police outside my window there,” he says.
The next thing Michael heard was arguing.
“And then I heard, ‘He’s got a gun!' And yeah, I’m scared. So, I got down on the floor underneath the bed,” Michael described to me.
Scared to speak, Michael texted his boss. who immediately called the police.
“And they said ‘Ok, come out. What're you wearing? Don’t have anything in your hands.’ And they got me out of there by 7:30."
In his slippers and pajamas, Michael sat in a police car outside of Albertsons for nearly two hours. He was brought to the Safety Center, where he and other tenants were interviewed until around 11:30 p.m. Then the Red Cross put them up in a Motel 6 Tuesday and Wednesday night. I asked if Michael had been able to enter his home yet.
“No, I cannot,” Michael told me. “They’re cleaning it up. They told us there’s pepper spray upstairs. All the windows are busted and everything in my room is totally soaking wet."
The only things that have been retrieved from Michael's room are a pair of shoes, a phone charger, and his special University of Kentucky jacket—which had a little surprise in it.
“I found that in my coat,” Michael told me as he held up the shell of a tactical device.
“That was in your coat? What is it?” I asked.
“I have no idea. I guess it’s some kind of water bomb, or I don’t know,” says Michael.
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Beginning Thursday night, and for the foreseeable future, Michael and his fellow tenants are on their own.
“Right now, I don’t know where I’m going to be tonight," Michael says.
He tells me it’s been a battle trying to find the owner of the building, to know when he can sleep in his own bed again.
“I have no idea when I’m gonna be able to get back in there. I might just go get out of here and visit my son in Columbus for a while,” says Michael.
And because this standoff resulted in a suicide?
“That’s the hardest part, you know. I really didn't want to see it come to an end like this. I really wanted to see him get help. Like I said, I have family members that have similar things. And you know, you want them to get help,” says Michael.
A GoFundMe campaign has been launched to help Michael and other residents who have been displaced from the building. Click here for more details.
