Aug. 5 (UPI) — The Montana manhunt is growing for a former U.S. Army soldier on the run five days after he allegedly shot and killed four at a local bar in the southwest part of the state.
Authorities say there has been no confirmed sightings of Michael Paul Brown, 45, after he allegedly opened fire Friday morning at Owl Bar in Anaconda, which is the county seat in the small Montana city of roughly 9,000 citizens.
He is believed to be on foot in the mountains just west of Anaconda, the Billings Gazette in Montana reported on Tuesday.
Montana authorities found his Ford F-150 pickup truck around Saturday after the shooting roughly 80 miles southwest of the state capital in Helena.
Deer Lodge County Attorney Morgan Smith said about 38 federal, state and local agencies were involved in the statewide hunt.
Gov. Greg Gianforte signed an executive order to utilize financial resources from the state’s emergency response fund in order to aid law enforcement efforts.
He opened a press event on Tuesday with a moment of silence for the four identified victims: 64-year-old bartender Nancy Loretta Kelly, and Owl Bar patrons Daniel Edwin Bailey, 59, David Allen Leach, 70, and 74-year-old Tony Wayne Palm.
“Rest assured, our brave men and women of law enforcement aren’t giving up,” Gianforte said Tuesday at a press conference, adding officers were “unrelenting in their pursuit, working around the clock” to find the suspected Brown.
“This action today will ensure additional financial resources are available as we continue to track down this criminal,” the Republican governor said.
Brown, a U.S. Army soldier from 2001-2005 and a member of Montana’s National Guard from 2008-2008, saw a deployment to Iraq and eventually rose to the rank of sergeant .
Brown has no prior criminal record. He is a 1998 high school graduate and brother of William Leonard Brown, who is currently serving a 100-year prison sentence for fatally stabbing a man locally in 2000.
According to officials, Brown lived next door to the bar and is a known figure to law enforcement.
“This is an unstable individual who walked in and murdered four people in cold blood — for no reason whatsoever,” Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen said Sunday.
He added there “absolutely” is concern for the public’s safety as the manhunt expands.
Meanwhile, the state’s attorney general said the U.S. Marshals Service has offered up to a $10,000 reward for information leading to Brown’s arrest. Tips: 1-877-WANTED2.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.