Four people are the ninth largest mass murder in the United States in 2025 in Montana bar shootings | Montana

Four people died in a shooting Friday Montana The bar, prompting authorities to search a suspect in a tree-woodland in the case, blocked it around a few miles away.

According to the shooting, so far this year, the number of mass murders in the United States has reached nine. Gun Violence ArchivesThis is a nonpartisan resource that defines a case as a case where four or more victims were killed.

All of these mass murders were shootings, and four happened 30 days from July 2. This is the second mass murder in the United States since Monday Under attack A skyscraper in New York City, occupying the National Football League headquarters and shot four people to death before committing suicide.

Friday’s mass murder Montana According to the state’s Criminal Investigation Department, it happened around 10:30 a.m. at the Owl Bar in Anaconda. The agency is leading an investigation into the shooting confirmed that four people were pronounced dead at the scene.

According to public records, the suspect was identified as 45-year-old Michael Paul Brown, who lives next door to the bar. Authorities say a tactical team cleaned Brown’s house and he met for the last time in the Stump Town area west of Anaconda.

More than a dozen officers from local and state police gathered in the area to lock it up so no one was allowed to enter and exit. Randy Clark (a retired police officer) told the Associated Press that a helicopter also hovered on a nearby mountainside.

David Gwerder, owner of the Owl Bar, said a bartender and three customers in the shooting were killed. Gwerder, who was not there at the time, said he believed the four victims were the only victims present in the shooting.

The Montana Highway Patrol said in a statement that Brown was considered armed.

According to an Army spokesman, Brown served as an armored crew member in the U.S. Army from 2001 to 2005 and was deployed to Iraq from early 2004 to March 2005. From 2006 to March 2009, he served in the National Guard in Montana and left military service in the sergeant.

With reports of the shooting spreading in towns, business owners locked the door and hid inside with customers. At a nursery in Caterpillars to Butterflies, a few blocks from the shooting site, owner Sage Huot said she kept her kids inside all day and someone called to let her know about the violence.

“We’ve been doing practice training, fire drills and active shooter training, so we locked the facilities, locked the doors, and we had a quiet place where we were having activities outside all the windows and doors,” Huot said.

Anaconda is about 75 miles (120 kilometers) southeast of Missoura. It is a small town in a valley of about 9,000 people surrounded by mountains and was founded by the Copper Baron who profited from nearby mines in the late 1800s.

The owner of Anaconda’s Firefly Cafe said she locked her business around 11 a.m. on Friday.

“We’re Montana, so guns are no strangers to us,” said Barbie Nelson, a cafe owner. “Everyone is very rattled to get our town locked.”