In the small city of Glendive, Montana, where families once felt safe enough to leave their doors unlocked, a senseless act of violence on a frigid November night in 1987 shattered a family and the community's sense of security. The Brooks family had moved to the eastern Montana town just over two years earlier after the Burlington Northern Railroad shuttered its shops in their former town of Livingston. James J. Brooks Jr., a 42-year-old machinist for the railroad, and his wife, Sharon L.
Brooks, 40, were trying to make the best of their new life nearly five hours from their old one. They had four children and had been married for 22 years, a couple described as vivacious, energetic, and well-respected.
On the night of November 19, 1987, just days before Thanksgiving, their lives were irrevocably destroyed by a teenage neighbor they had never met. Sixteen-year-old Douglas Duane Turner, who lived just a house away, had been drinking heavily at a party after his recent release from a juvenile alcohol treatment program. Around midnight, he returned home, retrieved a.30-30 rifle, and walked next door to the Brooks' residence. A neighbor heard someone yell, "God damn it, let me in," followed by James Brooks' voice saying, "Put the gun away." Turner then barged into the home and began firing.
James, a husband and father, was shot and killed in his living room while trying to protect his family. Turner then moved through the house, shooting James's mother, Ora Virginia Whitney Brooks, 60, as she tried to flee the home screaming. Sharon Brooks was also shot and killed inside her home. The rampage was utterly senseless; Turner later admitted he had no motive and had never met the family he destroyed. The brutal attack left four children without their parents and grandmother.
The horror of that night was witnessed by the youngest child, eight-year-old Sean Brooks, and his friend, Scott Miller, who were in the basement. Hearing the gunshots, the two boys ran upstairs and saw Turner standing in the kitchen. They dropped to the floor and covered their heads. When Turner's rifle misfired as he aimed at them, he brutally beat both boys on the head with the butt of the weapon. After Turner left, Sean ran outside and found his mother dying in the street. A passing neighbor pulled the boy into her car and called the police.
Douglas "Doug" Turner was arrested at the scene. In April 1988, he pleaded guilty to three counts of deliberate homicide, two counts of felony assault, and one count of aggravated burglary. He was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences. In his guilty plea, Turner stated, "In view of the testimony, as well as all the reports, there is no doubt in my mind that I caused the deaths of James Brooks, Jr., Sharon Brooks, and Ora Brooks, and that I committed the assaults on Sean Brooks and Scott Miller."
Turner's violence did not end with his imprisonment. He went on to become one of Montana's most prolific murderers, killing six more people while incarcerated. He and another inmate, William Gollehon, murdered a fellow prisoner in 1990 and five more during a deadly prison riot in 1991. For these crimes, Turner received a death sentence in addition to his multiple life sentences. However, the state would never carry out the execution. On July 8, 2003, at the age of 31, Douglas Turner committed suicide by hanging himself in his maximum-security cell at Montana State Prison.
The violence inflicted by Turner reverberated for a lifetime, especially for the young boy who survived the attack. Sean Brooks suffered from a brain injury and severe psychological trauma that he could never escape. He ran from the demons of that night for years, and though he had periods of calm, the trauma ultimately proved inescapable. His siblings noted that he never truly had a chance at a normal life. In 2019, more than three decades after the murders, Sean passed away, becoming, in the eyes of his family, the final victim of that horrific night in Glendive.
