Police found that a U.S. veteran’s escape car walked into a bar in western Montana Friday morning and fatally shot four people, but the gunman was still large.
Montana’s Criminal Investigation Division said the shooting occurred at the Owl Bar at around 10:30 local time. The bar owner told the Associated Press that he believed the suspect was just a “rush to buy”.
Police said they found the white Ford 150 pickup truck that the suspect had fled the scene, but showed no sign of a gunman.
Authorities are now focusing their searches on the mountainous areas west of Anaconda and asking residents of the area to stay home and lock their doors.
The Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Law Enforcement Center called the suspect Michael Paul Brown on social media, adding that he was “deemed armed and dangerous”.
According to public records, he lives next door to the bar.
David Gwerder, the owner of the Owl Bar, wasn’t there when the shooting happened, told the Associated Press: “He knew everyone was in that bar.
“I promise you. He didn’t have any disputes with any of them. I just think he snapped up.”
The suspect is a veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces, an Army spokesman told the U.S. media. Colonel Ruth Casrow said Mr. Brown had been an armored crew since 2001-05 and was deployed to Iraq in 2004-05.
“If you can’t see it,” Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Law Enforcement Center said of the suspect, “Contact 911 to contact Michael Paul Brown.”
At the time of the incident, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Guns and Explosives (ATF) said that “a shooting is being responded to, shooting multiple political parties in an Anaconda business.”
Police said in an update Friday night that the victims have been identified but their names will not be released until they are notified by their families.
Kelly Deriesux, Jodi’s Cantina and Barmaid, three blocks from Owl Bar, told BBC News by phone that many businesses in the town had closed for the day.
A friend told her that the armed personnel came to her house and “please ask them to speak out from the window and lock their door.”
Her restaurant is currently open. “We have urgent precautions if needed,” she said.
The Granite County Sheriff’s Office, near Anaconda, posted on social media that the gunman “is said to be wearing a Tye-stained shirt, blue jeans and an orange headscarf”.
The Sheriff’s home in Anaconda has been searched and “cleaned” by the Swat team, the sheriff’s office added.
Anaconda is a former copper smelting center with a population of nearly 10,000 in southwestern Montana, 109 miles (175 kilometers) west of Bozeman.
Montana Governor Greg Gianforte said he is monitoring the response to the incident.
“Please join Susan and me in praying for the victims, loved ones and brave law enforcement officers to deal with this tragedy,” the governor said on social media.
The FBI is also on the spot to help in the investigation.
Montana Sen. Steve Daines told local media that police drones are helping for “a massive hunt.”
According to an article in the 1987 Montana Standard newspaper, the Owl Bar was founded in 1893 to serve copper workers in Anaconda. It is located near Anaconda and is called Goosetown.
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