A brutal attack Sunday at a home on Route 26 in Gray, in which transient Jon Brown is accused of beating and shooting his former brother-in-law, has police and the victim’s friends and family baffled as to motive and means.

They aren’t sure how the 52-year-old Brown, who didn’t have a car, managed to get to the victim’s house near the Gray-New Gloucester line. And no one knows why Brown would bind the 64-year-old Harold Small to a chair and then shoot him in the head.

According to a close friend of the Small family, who spoke to the Lakes Region Weekly on condition of anonymity, Brown, “came out of nowhere on Sunday” to visit Harold Small’s son, who is also named Harold Small and is Brown’s former nephew. The friend said, and Maine State Police spokesman Steve McCausland later confirmed, that the younger Small lives part time in Windham in a rental cabin on Route 302 near the intersection with Albion Road, and part time at a family member’s house in Gorham.

McCausland confirmed that the younger Small then brought Brown to a Dale Lane residence in North Windham on Sunday around 11 a.m. so the son could work on his motorcycle. The friend was in the back yard of the Dale Lane home on Sunday and met Brown. The friend said Brown was in good spirits Sunday afternoon, wasn’t drinking alcohol, and gave no sign about what would allegedly happen later that night.

“He showed up at his nephew’s house out of the clear blue sky. We’d like to know why,” the friend said. “Then they came over (to Dale Lane) on Sunday morning, were outside for several hours chit-chatting about the motorcycle while young Harold worked on it. I met him because I went over for a while, sat in the back yard. Everything seemed fine.”

McCausland said police themselves have a lot of unresolved questions. After a nearly 24-hour manhunt, Jon Brown was apprehended Monday night at the younger Small’s rental cabin on Roosevelt Trail. According to Brown’s arrest affidavit, Brown stole Small Sr.’s cell phone during the attack and made several calls on Monday. Police were then able to track Brown’s whereabouts to the rental cabin. McCausland said police “are trying to clarify” why Brown was found at the residence. As of press time, Brown’s home address is unknown. According to McCausland, Brown was alone when police surrounded the cabin at 7 Monday night.

“About 20 tactical team members surrounded the small cabin and Jon Brown came outside not knowing we were there, and surrendered without incident,” McCausland said.

Brown, who was partly raised by Small Sr. as a youth, has an extensive police record. According to McCausland, he served 13 years in prison for a 1982 attempted murder in Portland. He was also convicted on charges of burglary, gross sexual assault, assault, theft, and escape from prison from 1977 to 1983. Due to the May 23 attack, Brown now faces charges of attempted murder, robbery and elevated aggravated assault. His last known address was 1379 Broadway, South Portland.

The attack

According to the friend, and confirmed by McCausland, the elder Small, despite being shot, was able to recount to a Cumberland County Sheriff’s deputy details of the attack that transpired at his home at 429 Shaker Road (Route 26) in Gray Sunday night. His daughter was present while Small talked to the deputy from his hospital bed at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston early Monday morning. The daughter then recounted those details to her friend, who shared the information with the Lakes Region Weekly, which is releasing only the information confirmed by McCausland.

According to the friend and McCausland, the elder Small was home alone in Gray on Sunday night watching the Academy of Country Music awards ceremony television broadcast when Brown rang the front doorbell. Small let his former brother-in-law in and, since both share an interest in motorcycles, led him into the basement to look at Small’s three-wheeled motorcycle. On the way down the stairs, Brown attacked Small with a blunt object, McCausland said. Small stumbled and fell to the bottom of the stairwell, bleeding profusely.

“He was hurt so bad, he persuaded Jon to help him get upstairs,” said the friend. “Jon, for some reason, did help him back upstairs, where he roughed him up some more. He was looking for money.”

Both the friend and McCausland say Small gave Brown the money he had and then Brown duct-taped Small to a chair and proceeded to ransack the home looking for more cash and valuables. After searching and growing more frustrated with Small’s denial that he had more money in the house, Brown retrieved a small-caliber rifle from a gun cabinet and pointed the gun at Small’s forehead, which McCausland also confirmed.

“Harold said he had a feeling that Jon was serious about shooting him, and when he put the gun to his forehead, he turned and the bullet went into his eye, and lodged in his skull just above his ear,” the friend said.

On Small’s ability to survive the gunshot, McCausland said, “It was a serious wound requiring brain surgery. It’s miraculous that he did survive.”

The friend reports, and McCausland confirmed, that Jon Brown left the home after the shooting, with Small still bound to the chair. Small was surprisingly conscious despite the head wound and despite losing much blood between the attack and the bullet wound.

“Jon told Harold that he’d be back, and if he wasn’t dead by the time he got back, he’d kill him,” the friend said, and McCausland confirmed. “Who knows how Harold got the duct tape off. But somehow he managed to crawl across the floor, across the front lawn, up the neighbor’s porch where he just kept banging, banging, banging on the door until someone came. It was near midnight at that time, so it took awhile for the neighbor to get to the door, but they did and then called 911.”

The family is now referring to Small as an “Ironman” for surviving the attack, crawling to a neighbor’s home, and for recalling details and reporting those to authorities.

“Nobody would have known who did this if Harold hadn’t lived to tell about it. It’s a miracle,” the friend said.

According to the friend, Small underwent surgery to remove bone shards and bullet fragments that lodged in his brain. He will soon undergo plastic surgery to his face and spinal surgery. The eye that was shot, however, is “completely gone.” The friend also said doctors will leave the bullet inside the bone of Small’s skull for now. Despite the good prognosis, the crime has shaken the Small family.

“There’s a lot we don’t know right now. We can’t imagine what possessed (Brown) to do this. They were family. One of our questions is, how did he get to Gray in the first place. He couldn’t walk that far. Was someone with him? There are still a lot of unanswered questions,” the friend said.

Police surrounded this cabin located off Route 302 in Windham Monday night and apprehended Jon Brown as he walked outside the residence unaware that a state police tactical team had the structure surrounded. Brown faces robbery, elevated aggravated assault and attempted murder charges stemming from a Sunday night incident in Gray. Staff photo by John Balentine