One theme Cannon writers leaned on quite a bit too hard was Cannon going into a small town with an insular and hostile populace, but luckily befriended and saved from death by one sympathetic townsperson.
And it wasn't just Cannon. You can find the trope in use in other PI shows like Mannix and The Rockford Files.
Here, it doesn't really make a lot of sense. $900,000 is stolen from an armored car robbery, then the robbers have a falling out resulting in one dead and one wounded, and the survivors plan to use the money to reopen an old gold mine ... with most of the townspeople becoming Accessories After the Fact.
Of course, we have no idea how Cannon knew to look for one of the suspects in this small town. He just drives up to it with it marked on a highway map. LOL
THEN, while Cannon knows there could be trouble, he goes out to the abandoned mine alone, where the town's Police Chief (never seen before in the episode) tries to murder him with a rifle and keeps missing Cannon as a stationary target, finally only grazing his upper arm. Of course, with return fire, Cannon takes out the assassin with a shot of at least 50 yards with his snub-nose .38.
It really makes NO SENSE at all, and that's the same comment I have for virtually the entire plot. But, you DO get a look at a younger Wojo, of later Barney Miller fame, and I always liked LQ Jones ... except when he's a bad guy.