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The shooting at a bar in Montana killed four people Friday, prompting the closure of a neighborhood several miles away as authorities searched for suspects in forested mountainous areas.
The shooting took place at about 10:30 a.m. at an owl bar in Anaconda, according to the Montana Criminal Investigation Bureau, which leads the investigation. The agency confirmed that the four people were declared dead at the scene.
The suspect, identified as 45-year-old military veteran Michael Paul Brown, lived next door, according to public records and bar owner David Gwerder.
Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Law Enfortion Center via Facebook
Michael Paul Brown was suspected and was last seen in the Stamptown area.
The bartender and three patrons were killed, said Gwaldar, who was not there at the time. He believes that the four victims during the shooting were the only victims, and he was unaware of the previous conflict between them and Brown.
“He knew everyone in that bar and I guarantee that to you,” Gwaldar said. “He wasn’t fighting anything with any of them. I think he snapped.”
Brown’s house was cleared by the SWAT team and he was last seen in the stump town just west of Anaconda, authorities said.
More than a dozen local and state police officers gathered in the area to lock it down and ensure no one came in or out. The helicopter also hovered to a nearby mountainside as officers moved between the trees, said Randy Clark, a retired police officer who lives there.
Brown was believed to be armed, the Montana Highway Patrol said in a statement.
According to Army spokesman Lt. Col. Ruth Castro, Brown served as an Armor Crew member from 2001 to 2005 as an Armor Crewman, and was deployed in Iraq from the beginning of 2004 until March 2005. Brown was in the Montana National Guard from 2006 to March 2009, Castro said. He left military service to the rank of Sergeant.
As reports of the shooting spread across town, the business owner locked the door and evacuated with customers. At Caterpillars to Butterflies Childcare, a nursery several blocks from the shooting scene, owner Sage Huot said he had kept the kids all day long after someone called her to let her know about the violence.
“We’ve always done practice drills, fire drills, active shooter drills, so we locked the facilities and locked the doors. There’s a quiet place where we can play the activities from all the windows and doors,” says Huot.
Anaconda is sandwiched between approximately 75 miles (120 km) of mountains southeast of Missoula. It is a town of about 9,000 people and was founded in the late 1800s by a Copper Baron, who profited from a nearby mine. A stack of smelters that are no longer woven over a valley that is no longer operating.
The owner of Firefly Café in Anaconda said he locked up the business around 11am on Friday after being warned by a shooting from a friend.
“We’re Montana, so guns aren’t new to us,” said Barbie Nelson, owner of the cafe. “Everyone is pretty rattling for our town to be locked up.”
Brown reported from Billings, Montana and Slevin in Denver. Associated Press writer Lisa Bauman from Bellingham, Washington, contributed to the report.
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