The man suspected of killing four people at a Montana bar was arrested after a weeklong manhunt.
Michael Paul Brown, 45, opened fire at an Anaconda bar last Friday, killing a bartender and three customers, identified by officials as Nancy Lauretta Kelley, 64; Daniel Edwin Baillie, 59; David Allen Leach, 70; and Tony Wayne Palm, 74. He fled the scene in a pickup truck before ditching it shortly after and hiding in the Montana hills. Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen announced at a press conference that Brown had been “flushed out” after nearly a week of searching by law enforcement personnel.
“It’s a good day,” Knudsen declared on Friday. “We got our man.”
Brown was armed at the time of his capture, authorities said.
“I am proud of the unrelenting law enforcement effort this week to find and arrest Michael Paul Brown. The support we’ve seen for the community of Anaconda from across the state and the nation has also been remarkable. The families and friends of the victims remain in my prayers,” Knudson said in a statement after his capture.
Before his capture, the Army veteran was “believed to be armed, and he is extremely dangerous,” said Lee Johnson, administrator of the Montana Division of Criminal Investigation.
Brown served as an armor crewman in the Army from 2001 to 2005. He entered active duty service in 2001 and left in 2005, a stint that included a deployment to Iraq from early 2004 until March 2005. He then served in the National Guard from 2006 to 2009.
Brown’s relatives said he suffered from a litany of mental health problems since leaving the Army, including PTSD and schizophrenia.
“This isn’t just a drunk/high man going wild,” Clare Boyle, Brown’s niece, wrote in a Facebook message. “It’s a sick man who doesn’t know who he is sometimes and frequently doesn’t know where or when he is either.”
OFFICIALS SCOUR MOUNTAINOUS AREA OF MONTANA FOR EX-US SOLDIER SUSPECTED OF KILLING 4 IN BAR SHOOTING
He lived a short walk away from the site of the massacre. Locals said he didn’t have any feuds with those killed that they knew of.
The manhunt for Brown was massive in scale, involving hundreds of people from over 30 agencies.