ANACONDA, Montana (AP) — A man suspected in a shooting at a Montana bar that left four people dead and prompted a neighborhood lockdown was captured Friday after a weeklong search, authorities said.
Michael Paul Brown, 45, was taken into custody around 2 p.m. near the area where authorities had focused their search in the days following the Aug. 1 shooting at The Owl Bar in Anaconda, about a hundred miles from Missoula. Authorities said only that Brown had been placed under arrest, without providing more details about where he was found.
Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte (R) confirmed Brown’s capture on social media Friday afternoon, saying it was an incredible response from law enforcement officers across the state.
“May God continue to be with the families of the four victims still grieving their loss,” he said.
Authorities planned to release more details about Brown’s capture during a news conference Friday evening.
Montana authorities have not said what sparked last week’s shooting, which killed a female bartender and three male patrons. They were identified as Nancy Lauretta Kelley, 64; Daniel Edwin Baillie, 59; David Allen Leach, 70; and Tony Wayne Palm, 74.
The shooting rattled the tight-knit town of about 9,000 people, and many residents were on high alert as authorities searched wooded hillsides from the ground and air. About 22 square miles (57 square kilometers) of forest southwest of Anaconda had been closed to the public by forest managers as a precaution.
Earlier in the week, Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen (R) had said it didn’t appear that Brown had broken into any cabins or homes in the area to get food or additional supplies.
Brown, who lived next door to The Owl Bar, served in the Army as an armor crewman from 2001 to 2005 and deployed to Iraq from early 2004 until March 2005. He also was in the Montana National Guard from 2006 to 2009.
Brown’s niece, Clare Boyle, told the AP her uncle has struggled with mental illness for years and she and other family members repeatedly sought help.
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