Montana Criminal Investigation/Facebook DepartmentPolice appointed four people to be killed in a shooting at a bar in Montana, U.S., as pursuers of an alleged attack by Army veterans.
Barmaid Nancy Nancy Lauretta Kelley, a 64-year-old customer – Daniel Edwin Baillie, 59, David Allen Leach, 70, and Tony Wayne Palm, 74-year-old – died of rifle attackers opening fire at a bar in Anaconda on Friday morning.
Police said the suspect, Michael Paul Brown, 45, then fled to nearby foothills.
Authorities have provided a $7,500 (£5,650) reward for any information that would result in his arrest.
“It’s an unstable man who walked in and murdered four people for no reason,” Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen said in a press conference Sunday.
“So it’s absolutely the public that cares about.”
He added that officials have since expanded their search area to include national forest land outside Nakunda, a town surrounded by dense mountainous areas in southwestern Montana.
“We want to find this guy,” Mr. Nudson said. “It’s a dangerous person who committed an absolutely outrageous crime against this community.”
About 250 law enforcement officers — federal, state and local — have assisted with walking searches as well as cars and helicopters, officials said.
Officials said the shooting occurred at the Owl Bar at around 10:30 a.m. Friday.
Mr. Nudson pointed out that the suspect was a regular visitor to the bar and lived next door. “The suspect is likely to know the bartender and these customers, which makes it even more outrageous,” he said.
Cassandra Dutra, another male and female assistant, told CNN that the suspect would frequently enter the owl bar, but “he is not part of the friendship among the clients.” Ms. Duterra was not working on Friday.
Ms. Kelley’s daughter, Nancy Kelley, told NBC News that her mother had been a nurse for 30 years until she recently retired, when she found a part-time job at a bar because “it made her a little social and just met people.”
She said that in Anaconda was once an unimaginable mass shooting.
“You didn’t even lock the car outside, or the house, and that’s what I mean, I won’t say, that’s all dangerous,” she said.
Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Law Enforcement CenterInvestigators did not rule out the possibility that Mr Brown could die now, but said they were based on the assumption that he was alive, armed and dangerous.
Mr. Brown is a veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces, serving as an armored crew since 2001-05 and deployed to Iraq from 2004-05.
The shooting authorities found a white Ford 150 pickup truck, and they said the suspect had escaped but showed no signs.
Montana’s Criminal Investigation Department released an updated image on Saturday, they said the suspect fled the scene.
In the photo, a man is barefoot, barefoot and wearing only black shorts, seeing a man walking down the stairs while leaning against a stone wall.
Mr Northon said the photo was taken after the suspect got rid of some personal belongings and his clothes.
He thought Mr. Brown had other clothes and shoes later and was “able to move around.”
The shooting forced many businesses in the area to close. Since then, some have reopened, but many public events have been cancelled due to the search.
Mr Brown’s niece, Clare Boyle, told AP News that her uncle had been struggling with mental illness for years.
“It’s more than just a drunk/high man crazy,” she said in a Facebook message.
“This is a sick person who sometimes doesn’t know who he is and often doesn’t know where or when he is.”
