Note: This story was last updated at 9:45 a.m. on Tuesday. Check back for developments.
Law enforcement vehicles pile up near Stumptown Road. Authorities believe Michael Brown, a suspected shooter, is in or around the Garrity Mountain and Stumptown Road area.
A shooting at an Anaconda bar on Friday left four people dead — a bartender and three patrons. The shooting suspect, Michael Brown, was still at large Tuesday morning.
Authorities believed Sunday night that they had a good fix on Brown's location.
“We’re going to catch this guy,” Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen told reporters outside the Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Courthouse Sunday morning. “This is still absolutely priority No. 1.”
Gov. Greg Gianforte and Knudsen are expected to hold a press conference at 11 a.m. Tuesday at the Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Courthouse.
Here is what else we know about the incident:
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Where and when did the shooting take place?
According to the Montana Division of Criminal Investigation, the incident occurred around 10:30 a.m. Friday at the Owl Bar on East 3rd Street in the Goosetown neighborhood of Anaconda.
Situated in southwest Montana, Anaconda is a town of about 9,800 people. It's roughly 25 miles west of Butte and 80 miles southwest of Helena, Montana's capital.
Police tape cordons off the Owl Bar in Anaconda on Friday following a reported shooting.
Who is the shooting suspect?
The Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Law Enforcement Center posted this photo of Michael Paul Brown to its social media account Friday afternoon.
Law enforcement identified Michael Brown, 45, as the suspected shooter.
Brown served in the U.S. Army from 2001 to 2005 and had been deployed at least once to Iraq. He was in the National Guard from 2006 to 2009 and his last known rank was sergeant.
He lived in a home next door to the Owl Bar, authorities said. According to an initial online records search, Brown is a 1998 high school graduate with no listed criminal record.
William Leonard Brown, a brother of Michael Brown, fatally stabbed a man in Anaconda-Deer Lodge County in 2000. He was sentenced in January 2002 to 100 years in prison and is now held at the Saguero Correctional Center, a private prison in Arizona, according to the Montana Department of Corrections.
Where was the suspect last seen?
As of Tuesday morning, Brown was still at large, believed to be on foot in the mountains just west of Anaconda.
He was last seen around 2 p.m. Friday driving west of Anaconda on Stumptown Road. He was believed to be driving a stolen white Ford F-150 pickup.
Photo released by the state shows Michael Brown preparing to flee the scene in Anaconda on Aug. 1 after allegedly shooting four people in the Owl Bar. Brown was seen on security camera footage leaving the bar.
Authorities located the truck on Friday, but Brown was still at large.
Authorities released a still surveillance photo of Brown that was taken at some point after the fatal shooting Friday and it appeared he was barefoot and only had shorts on.
But Knudsen said Brown fled the area in the stolen Ford pickup that had camping gear and clothing in it, and believed he was clothed when he ditched the truck and scampered by foot into the mountains.
“At this point we have a reason to believe the suspect is fully clothed, shoes on his feet and able to get around,” Knudsen said.
Knudsen also said authorities did not know whether Brown was armed, a situation adding peril for searchers in an area that features thick stands of aspens and lodgepole pines.
A portable road sign off Montana Highway 1 west of Anaconda typically warns westbound motorists of potential collisions with bighorn sheep. It offered a more ominous message in August when the search continued for Michael Paul Brown, the fugitive believed to have shot and killed four people in an Anaconda bar.
What have search efforts entailed?
Knudsen said Sunday morning more than 250 law enforcement officers from numerous local, state and federal agencies were involved in the manhunt. Helicopters with infrared technology and other assets were deployed.
Throughout the weekend, search efforts were mostly concentrated in the Stumptown Road area and the surrounding mountain range. Stumptown Road was closed at Evergreen Street and a nearby gravel road leads toward Hearst Lake in the Mount Haggin area of the Anaconda-Pintler Range.
The search for suspect Michael Brown focused on an area near Garrity Mountain and in the foothills of the Anaconda Range off Stumptown Road west of Anaconda. Acquaintances said Brown knew the area well from past experiences hunting and hiking. The area also includes mountain lakes.
On Sunday evening, authorities said they believed they Brown wasn't far from the base of Garrity Mountain, just west of Anaconda.
Around 6 p.m. Sunday, a SWAT team in an armored vehicle, followed by several other law enforcement vehicles, headed on Montana Highway 1 to the westernmost access to Stumptown Road and entered the road. About an hour later, a helicopter performed wide hovering sweeps and more than one drone took to the air - signs suggesting Brown had eluded capture.
The search resumed Monday morning.
Anaconda Police Chief Bill Sather spoke to reporters Monday evening outside the Anaconda-Deer Lodge County courthouse. Among other things, Sather said he is aware the community likely desires more updates from him but emphasized that all efforts continue to capture shooter Michael Brown in the vicinity of Garrity Mountain west of Anaconda.
“We are working around the clock to locate Michael Paul Brown,” he said.
“Your Anaconda law enforcement officers are working hand-in-hand with the folks from the assisting agencies,” Sather said. “It’s important that you know that we are doing everything we can to keep Anacondans safe.”
Sather said Monday evening that he had no substantial update, adding "information on the ground is changing at all times.”
Who are the victims?
The names of the four victims were released Sunday. They are 59-year-old Daniel Edwin Baillie, 64-year-old Nancy Lauretta Kelley, 70-year-old David Allen Leach, and 74-year-old Tony Wayne Palm. All four were residents of Anaconda.
Knudsen said authorities believe Brown was a regular at the bar and likely knew the victims.
Four victims of the Anaconda shooting
Palm.jpg
How do people who know the suspect describe him?
Chris Marchion of Anaconda, an avid outdoorsman who knows the territory around Garrity Mountain and the Garrity Mountain Wildlife Management Area, said Brown knows the area well.
He said Brown has backpacked in the country and knows the terrain, mountain lakes like Hearst, Haggin and more. There are heavily timbered sections, along with abandoned mines.
"It's pretty good terrain to hide out in," Marchion told The Montana Standard on Sunday. "Even if there is a helicopter flying over you could find a place to hide."
"He's not afraid of being uncomfortable,” he said. “He's an unstable person. And he's going to become more unstable."
David Gwerder, owner of the Owl Bar, told the Associated Press that the suspect "knew everyone that was in the bar. I guarantee you that. He didn't have a running dispute with any of them. I think he snapped."
Gwerder said he was not aware of any conflicts between Brown and the victims.
Numerous social media posts from people who said they knew Brown claim he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and had sought mental health help numerous times. Authorities have not confirmed those claims.
Dan Oberweiser, Brown’s high school football coach in Deer Lodge in the ‘90s, says as a kid he always "had a big smile on his face."
“What he did, that’s not the Mikey I knew 30 years ago," Oberweiser said.
Are there any restrictions in place in the Anaconda area?
According to public service updates from authorities, Anaconda is not on lockdown.
Law enforcement has urged residents to avoid the Stumptown Road area and "remain cautious and vigilant."
Anaconda Deer Lodge Police Chief Bill Sather issued a statement on video Saturday afternoon posted on the Montana DOJ Facebook page, telling residents it was “OK to go about your business but, please use caution.”
He thanked residents for their patience during this “stressful and tragic time in our community” and expressed condolences to friends and family of the victims.
Some residents in the Stumptown Road area were initially evacuated but they have been allowed to return to their homes.
What was the shooter's motive?
Authorities have not released any information regarding the shooter's motive.
How are locals reacting to the situation?
Marlene Quick, who lives on Washoe Street adjacent to Stumptown Road, said she saw a white pickup speeding by her house on Friday followed by several police cars.
“It’s so sad,” Quick said Saturday. “It’s horrifying.”
Tom Yochem was walking his dog, Sarah, about a half mile up the road that leads to Hearst Lake on Friday when he heard sirens. Then a friend called him and said he should get home.
Given the police presence Saturday, Yochem planned to change his routine.
Ted Williams, a manager at the Anaconda McDonald's, lives off Stumptown Road. He said Monday that he hasn't been able to check on his dogs for two days because his home is in the center of the search area for the suspect in the Owl Bar shooting.
Ted Williams, a well-known manager at the Anaconda McDonald’s, hoped authorities would allow him to return to the home he shares with an aunt at Garrity Mountain to allow him to feed and water three dogs.
Williams’ home is smack dab in the search zone area, with his home built into the side of Garrity Mountain.
He said he was allowed to return Saturday with a police escort to tend to the dogs. But he was not allowed to go Sunday. His three dogs are Gus, around 13 years old, Stanley and Ira.
What do we know about the Owl Bar?
The Owl Bar is cluttered with old signs and memorabilia, neon lights and has a long bar on one end that stretches the length of the room. One woman described it Friday as a favorite watering hole for locals.
It dates back to the early 1900s and according to a 1987 story in The Montana Standard, “was one of numerous bars along the old streetcar run that brought thousands of men to and from the Washoe Smelter each day.”
The bar is in the Goosetown neighborhood, which got its name from a large number of geese kept behind each bar that were raffled off frequently.
Members of a SWAT team deployed Aug. 3 as the search continued for Michael Brown, the suspect in the multiple slayings Aug. 1 at the Owl Bar in Anaconda. He was captured Aug. 8.
A bouquet of flowers lays on the sidewalk in front of the Owl Bar in Anaconda, Montana on August 2. On Friday, a man fatally shot four people at the bar. He was still at large on Saturday.
A police officer checks the identification of a motorist Saturday who wanted to travel on Stumptown Road west of Anaconda. Police had closed Stumptown Road at Evergreen Street as the search for the Owl Bar shooter continued.
Police officers confer Saturday at Stumptown Road below the Church of Christ, near where law enforcement gathered as the search continued for the Owl Bar shooter.
