Manhunt intensifies for suspect accused of gunning down 4 people at a bar for no obvious reason

By Karina Tsui, Michelle Watson, Holly Yan, CNN

(CNN) — The manhunt for an Army veteran suspected of killing four people at a bar he frequented has expanded in the rugged Montana terrain, authorities said.

Michael Paul Brown is still on the run Monday, three days after authorities said he opened fire at The Owl Bar in Anaconda, on the western side of Montana.

Brown is believed to be armed and dangerous, Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen said. Officials are offering a $7,500 reward for information leading to his capture.

Local, state and federal authorities have been scouring the wilderness by land and air. But it’s still unclear why Brown allegedly killed four people at the bar around 10:30 a.m. Friday before fleeing in his underwear.

Victims include a beloved retired nurse

The victims included a bartender and customers, the attorney general said. He identified the four victims as:

– Daniel Edwin Baillie, 59

– Nancy Lauretta Kelley, 64

– David Allen Leach, 70

– Tony Wayne Palm, 74

Officials previously gave the wrong spelling for Baillie’s last name.

“I want to offer our deepest and sincere condolences to the community of Anaconda, to the family and friends of these victims,” Knudsen said. “This is just absolutely horrific.”

Kelley was an accomplished nurse who worked with cancer patients and had just started her retirement, bartender Cassandra Dutra said.

“I feel so sad for Nancy because I love Nancy and she was so very good to me from the day that I met her,” Dutra told CNN. “It just is an extremely unfair ending for somebody who spent their entire life dedicated to cancer patients and making a huge difference.”

It’s unclear whether Brown was specifically targeting any of the victims. But the suspect was a regular at The Owl Bar and likely knew the victims, owner David Gwerder told The Associated Press.

“He knew everybody that was in that bar. I guarantee you that,” Gwerder told the AP. “He didn’t have any running dispute with any of them. I just think he snapped.”

CNN has reached out to Gwerder for comment.

The suspect wasn’t the same after serving in the military, niece says

The suspect lived next door to the bar and would come in frequently, Dutra said. But “he wasn’t a part of the camaraderie” with other customers, the bartender said.

Brown served in the US Army from January 2001 to May 2005 and was part of an armored vehicle crew, Army spokesperson Lt. Col. Ruth Castro told CNN. He was deployed to Iraq from February 2004 to March 2005.

Brown later joined the Montana National Guard from April 2006 to March 2009 and left military service as a sergeant, Castro said.

The suspect’s niece, Clare Boyle, said her uncle struggled with mental health in the Army and wasn’t the same after his service.

Brown’s condition worsened after his parents died, Boyle told CNN. She described him as “very sick” but also recalled happy moments with him, such as learning to ride a bike and fishing together.

Boyle said she was devastated for the victims’ loved ones, noting five families were “destroyed” on Friday.

“There are no excuses or words of defense for this awful tragedy,” she said.

The Army declined to release information about Brown’s mental health history, citing policy and privacy constraints.

‘There’s a thousand places to hide’

Investigators aren’t sure why Brown gunned down victims with a rifle in the normally tranquil backcountry of Montana. But the manhunt has proved daunting.

Security footage showed Brown fleeing The Owl Bar, investigators said. He was last seen west of Anaconda, the AP said.

A white Ford F-150 truck that Brown drove was found, but the suspect “was not located in or around the vehicle,” Montana Division of Criminal Investigation Administrator Lee Johnson said.

Authorities locked down the Barker Lake area of the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest on Saturday as local, state and federal agencies searched by land and air, a Montana Department of Justice spokesperson said.

Authorities are also searching the area around Stumptown Road, north of the lake.

Anaconda resident Dan Haffey, who was a fire foreman for the Montana Division of Forestry, knows the area well. He told CNN his team would cut trails into Garrity Mountain for hikers.

“There’s a thousand places to hide on that mountain,” Haffey said.

“I’ve been on forest fires, and in that drainage up there, and (there are) 5,000 acres,” he said. “That mountain is gigantic.”

The FBI, the Granite County Sheriff’s Office and the Denver office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were assisting with the investigation, Anaconda Deer Lodge County Police Chief Bill Sather said Saturday.

As of Sunday, there were “250 boots on the ground” searching for Brown, along with air and ground resources from other states and federal agencies, Montana’s attorney general said. But he said that number would be reduced as the search shifts to a “fugitive location operation.”

“It’s still tourist season in western Montana,” Knudsen said. “So we’re not going to have as many resources here focused on the really sharp, focused search.”

This story has been updated with additional details.

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