A manhunt was underway in Montana on Saturday for a former United States soldier accused of fatally shooting four people at a bar in a “senseless act of violence,” police said.
The gunfire erupted around 10:30 a.m. local time on Friday at The Owl Bar in Anaconda, a small city of about 9,000 people surrounded by mountains, according to the Montana Division of Criminal Investigation. None of the victims, all of whom were pronounced dead on the scene, have yet to be identified.
Bar owner David Gwender, who was not present at the time of the shooting, said a bartender and three patrons were killed. He added they appeared to be the only people at the bar when the suspect, 45-year-old Michael Paul Brown, opened fire inside the watering hole and then fled the scene.
Gwender said he was not aware of any conflicts between the victims and Brown, who lived next door to the bar.
“He knew everybody that was in that bar. I guarantee you that,” Gwerder said. “He didn’t have any running dispute with any of them. I just think he snapped.”
Police have not yet provided a motive for the shootings, though Brown’s niece told The Associated Press her uncle has struggled with mental illness for years.
“[He’s] a sick man who doesn’t know who he is sometimes and frequently doesn’t know where or when he is either,” Clare Boyle said.
Brown remained at large as of Saturday morning, prompting a massive search effort, much of it focused in a mountainous area in the western corner of the state. Police said they located the 2007 white Ford F-150 pickup the suspect was last seen driving earlier on Friday, but he was not in it.
“While law enforcement has not received reports of Brown harming any other individuals, he is believed to be armed, and he is extremely dangerous,” Lee Johnson, of the Montana Department of Justice, told reporters at a brief news conference Friday night.
“Residents of the area have been notified and are encouraged to stay inside their homes and on high alert,” he said.
Brown served in the U.S. Army as an armor crewman from 2001 to 2005 and was deployed to Iraq from early 2004 until March 2005, according to Army spokesperson Lt. Col. Ruth Castro. Brown was later in the Montana National Guard from 2006 to March 2009, Castro said. He left military service in the rank of sergeant.
With News Wire Services
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