MONTAGUE — Town officials and residents are calling for more transparency from the Police Department in the wake of last month’s shooting in the Patch neighborhood.

Town Administrator Steve Ellis summarized at Monday’s Selectboard meeting that townspeople “felt more hamstrung than [they] would prefer when it comes to communication” during the Aug. 29 incident that left one person with non-life-threatening injuries and prompted access to the Patch to be temporarily blocked.

Ellis recalled recently meeting with Police Chief Christopher Williams and Police Lt. Christopher Bonnett, who reasoned that their “ability to communicate was subordinate to investigation.” The Selectboard expressed a desire to negotiate a balance between transparency and the integrity of an investigation going forward, voicing intentions to meet with Williams and Bonnett for a public discussion in the near future.

At around 8:30 p.m. on Aug. 29, police arrested Gil L. Viera, 30, of Sunrise, Florida, in connection with a shooting that occurred just before 1 p.m. that day. The Patch was closed to the public until the evening as emergency responders worked. Residents of the neighborhood, some of whom attended Monday’s meeting, recalled feelings of panic and fear as the situation was detailed by police to suggest an “active shooter.”

Briggs Doxzen, a resident of 11th Street who works at the Greenfield Savings Bank branch on Avenue A, said he had just come home from work for a lunch break when his children told him they saw the suspect “booking it into the woods.” Police then arrived at his residence, were “very cordial” and made it clear to him that the shooting was an isolated incident, but failed to keep the broader community apprised.

“I felt safe. It felt like whatever had happened had happened, so I got my kids settled with their sitter inside and I went back to work, but because of the communication that wasn’t happening, the bank later went into a lockdown situation because they had been informed ... of some type of active shooter,” Doxzen told the Selectboard. “That put me in an odd position, and then of course, as we know, not able to get back onto the Patch.”

H Street resident Andy Toomajian, who was home at the time of the incident, said police provided little detail aside from indicating that there was an “active shooter” situation. He argued that communication should be better for a town with a system in place to make public announcements. Montague participates in the CodeRED mobile alert service.

“It tells me when there’s a parade, when there’s a snowstorm. To have a ‘Star Wars’-level police presence in my neighborhood … that’s scary,” he said. “I don’t want to call the police in the middle of an investigation and be like, ‘Hey, what do I need to know about this?’ I want something proactive from a town that has an alert system.”

Town officials expressed similar concerns, while also acknowledging the Police Department’s commitment to protecting the integrity of active investigations.

“I think the answer that I can offer to you is that we believe we can — and we intend to — give more information in the event of a future incident, but we’ll need to do so within the rules that apply to that specific incident,” Ellis said. “We’re confident that we’ll be able to share more, and in a more timely fashion, but there will be some persisting limitations.”

“I think they created unnecessary fear among the town residents while simultaneously not providing necessary details,” Selectboard Clerk Matt Lord commented, calling the Police Department’s communication “poor” before shifting to a more jovial tone. “I’m not sure right now what the town would be able to do better. I just ask everybody listening now that if I’m ever charged with interference with an active investigation because I share information with you all, that you come help bail me out.”

Selectboard Chair Rich Kuklewicz said the topic “bears discussion” with Williams and Bonnett — neither of whom were in attendance Monday — during a future meeting. Multiple attempts by the Greenfield Recorder to reach Bonnett on Tuesday were unsuccessful.

“I don’t want to just say, ‘I hope we can do better,’” Kuklewicz said. “I want us to do better.”

Reach Julian Mendoza at 413-930-4231 or jmendoza@recorder.com.