Police looking for the man they say killed four people at a bar in Montana on Friday morning have found the car he fled in, but the suspect is still on the run, officials said.
Friday, the white Ford F-150 that Michael Paul Brown is thought to have been driving was found. However, Brown “was not located in or around the vehicle,” said Lee Johnson, administrator of the Montana Division of Criminal Investigation, at a news conference late Friday.
He said that the search is now focusing on the mountains near Stumptown Road, west of Anaconda, which is where the shooting happened.
A Facebook post from the Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Law Enforcement Center said that Brown is thought to be armed and dangerous. They asked people to stay away from the area and not approach him.
The shooting happened at 10:30 a.m. local time at The Owl Bar. The Montana DCI said the scene is safe but didn’t say anything else about what led to the shooting.
Johnson said that investigators have named all four victims of the shooting but won’t say what their names are until their families have been told.
Based on the Gun Violence Archive, there have been at least 256 mass shootings in the US so far this year.
Cassandra Dutra, who has worked as a bartender at the Owl Bar for six months, said that the shooting on Friday made her feel very sad and overwhelmed.
“That’s not real.” It’s too much for me to handle, she said. She thinks that everyone in the bar at the time of the shooting was killed, including three customers and the night manager, who was the only person working.
She said Brown lived next door to the bar and often came in, but she said “he wasn’t a part of the camaraderie” with the other people there.
Dutra wasn’t working on Friday, but she lives close to the bar and heard noise when the show was going on. At first, she thought it was coming from the building work going on outside the bar. She didn’t think it was dangerous or that people would get hurt when she heard there was shooting at the Owl.
“I didn’t freak out right away because I know how the Owl feels…” “I had no idea that anyone was hurt,” she said.
The owner of The Owl Bar, David Gwerder, told The Associated Press that he didn’t know of any problems between Brown and anyone in the bar on Friday morning.
“He knew everyone in that bar.” “I promise you that,” Gwerder told the AP. “He wasn’t in a constant fight with any of them.” I believe he lost it.
On X, Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte said that he is “praying for the victims, their loved ones, and the brave police officers” who came to the scene.
Congressman Ryan Zinke of Montana told people in the area to “stay inside and lock their doors.”
The FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives office in Denver, and the Granite County Sheriff’s Office all said they are help with the investigation.
