Shane Charles, a co-owner with his wife, Tamara, of Carmel’s Sports Bar Grill in Anaconda, was shot at the bar Saturday night and died after being transported to Community Hospital of Anaconda.  The Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Attorney’s Office has charged Mark Ray Lock, 61, with deliberate homicide, according to county law enforcement’s Facebook page. His bond is set at $1 million. According to a court filing based on witness testimony and video evidence, Lock approached Charles at the bar Saturday night, had a brief conversation, shoved him and then shot him once. A bystander wrestled the gun from Lock, who then fled, according to the document. Law enforcement set up a perimeter and detained the suspect.  Read the charging documentDownload As of press time, the Anaconda-Deer Lodge Police Department had not responded to a Montana Free Press request for comment. Carmel’s is two blocks from The Owl Bar, where four people were shot and killed last summer. Charles, who grew up in Anaconda, and his wife purchased Carmel’s in 2023 with hopes of transforming the rough-and-tumble bar and grill into a family-friendly establishment. The pair tried to retain elements of the Carmel’s identity, like staying open until 2 a.m. and maintaining an 86-year-old shuffleboard table, and build intimate relationships with their staff and regulars. MTFP interviewed Shane and Tamara last July for an unrelated story about the bar. Tamara did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.  Almost a year ago, Shane stood inside the bar and described Carmel’s rough reputation and his efforts to improve it.  “I think we’re doing pretty good,” Shane said. “There’s still a lot of people in this town that don’t even know we serve food. That’s what’s sad. A lot of people have a stigma that if you go to Carmel’s, you’re gonna get in a fight. That ain’t gonna happen on my watch.” Nestled in a quiet residential neighborhood just blocks from downtown Anaconda’s primary thoroughfares, Carmel’s dates to 1936. In the early 20th century, when Anaconda’s smelters anchored the state’s booming mining industry, Carmel’s bar-heavy neighborhood was popular with off-duty smelterworkers.  A pool table in Carmel’s Sports Bar Grill in Anaconda in July 2025. Credit: Zeke Lloyd / MTFP According to the bar’s menu, which includes a chronology of the business’ history, the original establishment featured a stage and advertised frequent live entertainment. By the time Shane and Tamara Charles bought Carmel’s in December 2023, it had fallen into a dilapidated state, according to Tamara. For instance: The interior desperately needed new paint, she said, because “it had nicotine dripping down the walls.” “It went through a lull where it was known for fights and drugs and crazy stuff — went through a couple of owners through that era,” Tamara said last summer. “And now we just want it to be the mom-and-pop Applebee’s of the whole area.” Tamara handled most of the logistics and finances for the business. Shane, she said, focused on “keeping the community involved.”  “To my husband, it’s a labor of love,” Tamara said.  The bar has organized leagues for recreational sports, including darts, shuffleboard, horseshoes and softball. The sports were especially significant for Shane, who grew up playing baseball just outside the bar. Back then, he had a good relationship with the bar’s founders, the Dire family. “Mr. Dire would invite us in for a candy bar and a soda so we wouldn’t break his windows when we were playing ball,” Shane said last summer.  Those memories are what encouraged Shane, a third-generation Anaconda bar owner, to make his own investment in Carmel’s. “We saw a business that was struggling, and now we’re trying to make it thrive again,” Shane said last year. Among other sacrifices, that meant long hours. Carmel’s Bar, and its kitchen, are open from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m.  “If you’re not open, you don’t get customers. That’s the way I put it,” Shane said. “You gotta keep the doors open.” The new era also meant building a new reputation, and attracting some new regulars, Tamara said.  A menu at Carmel’s Sports Bar Grill in Anaconda, photographed in July 2025, includes a page about the establishment’s history. Credit: Zeke Lloyd / MTFP “We definitely have a regular base. Did we kick some of those regular base out? Absolutely, 1,000%,” Tamara said. She said she wanted it to be a place where patrons and staff are treated like family.  Tiffany Wyant, who had been a cook at Carmel’s for eight months when MTFP interviewed her last July, said she felt like part of that family.  “My kids, after school, they walk down here, play pool and drink soda,” Wyant said at the time. Ryan Sullivan, whom the Charleses hired last summer, called Carmel’s “a good environment and a good place” during a July interview at the bar. “I’ve just come to really enjoy this place. Today’s my day off and I’m just sitting here hanging out,” Sullivan said. Shane, who was born in Deer Lodge and raised in Anaconda, graduated from high school in 1991. He loved the bar, he said in July, and his memories there. But he invested in it because he loved the town. “I just have a passion for Anaconda — probably because I grew up here — but if we can make a better place for the community, that’s my goal,” Shane said. This story was updated June 22, 2026, to correct the spelling of Tiffany Wyant’s name. The post Anaconda bar co-owner Shane Charles wanted to ‘make a better place for the community’ appeared first on Montana Free Press. ...read more read less