The manhunt for the suspect who opened fire and killed four people at a Montana bar has stretched into its fourth day on Monday.
Michael Paul Brown, 45, is still on the lam after allegedly walking into the Owl Bar in Annaconda at around 10:30 a.m. on Friday, before fatally shooting a bartender and three patrons and fleeing the scene, Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen said.
The victims were identified Sunday as bartender Nancy Lauretta Kelley, 64, and patrons Daniel Edwin Baillie, 59, David Allen Leach, 70, and Tony Wayne Palm, 74.
It’s not clear what motivated the shooting, and Knudsen described Brown as an “unstable individual” who likely knew the victims.
The public is warned that he is armed and dangerous, as officials announce a $7,500 reward for information on his whereabouts.
Here’s what we know:
The shooting:
Authorities allege Brown opened fire in the Owl Bar on Friday morning using a personal rifle and then fled the scene.
Brown was a regular at the bar, as he lived next door, and he is believed to have lived alone, Knudsen said.
“I think it’s likely that he knew the bartender and these patrons, which makes this even more heinous,” Knudsen said in a press conference Friday.
The Montana Department of Justice released a photo of Brown on Saturday that depicted him wearing just his boxers and running away from the scene.
Kndusen said that the photo was taken “relatively soon” after the shooting. Brown then allegedly went to another location not far from the crime scene and disposed of his clothes and some personal belongings. Authorities believe he then secured new clothes from a stolen vehicle that was loaded with camping equipment, Knudsen said.
“At this point, we have every reason to believe the suspect is fully clothed, shoes on his feet, able to get around,” Knudsen said Sunday.
Law enforcement officers briefly pursued Brown in that vehicle, but pulled back when they realized he was most likely armed, Knudsen said. Brown was not in the vehicle when law enforcement finally arrived.
Knudsen told NBC News that after finding the car, it led law enforcement to deduce Brown was “very likely up in the mountains, hiding in the timber, in the cover somewhere.”
That car chase was the last law enforcement contact with Brown.
“There was some confusion because there were two white vehicles that were involved,” Knudsen said in a Sunday press conference. “There were some federal assets that were involved in that pursuit, but I believe that was the last law enforcement contact with roughly noon.”
Anaconda, about 25 miles west of Butte and adjacent to the Continental Divide, is part of a consolidated government with Deer Lodge County in southwest Montana. The city and county have fewer than 10,000 residents combined.
The search
Local, state and federal partners are now searching for Brown, who remains at large.
Officials have focused the multiagency search on the area off Stumptown Road and expanded it to Barker Lake and the surrounding area.
At one point, over 250 boots were on the ground Saturday in the search, Knudsen said. The effort includes canine detection units, as well as infrared and heat detection technology used by air, drones, and personnel conducting searches of camping and hunting sites.
A $7,500 reward was announced Sunday for information on Brown’s whereabouts, and a hotline was set up by the U.S. Marshal Service at 1-877-926-8332.
Knudsen said Sunday that the law enforcement response will shift a little bit in Anaconda as some personnel return to their home bases and the effort turns into a “fugitive location operation.”
He noted it’s possible Brown could have died by suicide, “but we are acting under the assumption that he is alive, well, armed and extremely dangerous.”
There is also concern that Brown could return to town, Knudsen said.
An Army vet who struggled with mental health issues
Brown was known to local law enforcement, had a criminal record, and had access to firearms, Knudsen said.
He was described by people who knew him as having mental health issues.
Shane Charles, who grew up with him in Anaconda and owns another bar, previously told NBC News that Brown struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder.
“Mike was a great guy when he was on his meds. He did have some mental health problems,” Charles said.
Brown’s niece, Clare Boyle, also said he struggled with mental health issues, according to The Associated Press.
“This isn’t just a drunk/high man going wild,” she wrote in a Facebook post cited by the AP. “It’s a sick man who doesn’t know who he is sometimes and frequently doesn’t know where or when he is either.”
He previously served in the Army, ending his service in 2009.
Brown served as an Armor Crewman in the Army from January 2001 to May 2005 and in the Montana National Guard from April 2006 to March 2009. He was deployed to Iraq from February 2004 to March 2005. He left the service in the rank of sergeant.
The victims
Nancy Lauretta Kelley, 64, was a recently retired oncology nurse who started working part-time at the Owl Bar around a year and a half ago, her daughter Kristian Kelley told NBC News.
She had worked as a nurse for around 30 years and picked up the bartending job to “fill some of her time,” Kelley said.
Kelley recalled hearing about the shooting through a text from a friend, and called her mother, but didn’t get an answer. She then headed to Anaconda and soon discovered her mother was one of the victims.
Kelley said she knew Brown and he was someone in the community who would share “a little bit wild stories” from his time in the military.
“Maybe they were pretty incredible, so I don’t know, but I think a lot of them were embellished,” she said. “And maybe he believed them. I’m not sure, but he definitely was somebody that needed care.”
The shooting came as a shock to Kelley, who described Anaconda as a small but very safe place.
“We didn’t even lock our cars outside, you know, or the house, and it’s, I mean, I wouldn’t say it’s dangerous here at all,” she said. “But when people don’t receive services, you know, in rural areas, sometimes this is what happens.”
David Allen Leach, 70, was deaf and lived at a public housing complex for elderly people and people with disabilities.
“He was a good neighbor,” Robert Wyatt told The Associated Press. He recalled Leach as always happy to help neighbors with chores like moving furniture.
“If you needed help, Dave would help,” Wyatt said.
