Authorities said Friday they have captured a man suspected in a shooting at a Montana bar that left four people dead and prompted a lockdown of a neighborhood.
Michael Paul Brown, 45, was captured seven days after the 1 August shooting at the Owl Bar in Anaconda, about a hundred miles (190km) from Missoula.
The Montana governor, Greg Gianforte, 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.
Montana authorities have not said what sparked the shooting. Brown lived next door to the bar, according to public records.
Brown served in the army as an armor crewman from 2001 to 2005. He deployed to Iraq from early 2004 until March 2005, according to Lt Col Ruth Castro, an army spokesperson. Brown was in the Montana national guard from 2006 to March 2009, Castro said, and left military service at the rank of sergeant.
“I am proud of the unrelenting law enforcement effort this week to find and arrest Michael Paul Brown,” the Montana attorney general, Austin Knudsen, said in a statement. “The support we’ve seen for the community of Anaconda from across the state and the nation has also been remarkable. The families and friends of the victims remain in my prayers.”
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.
The victims of the killings at The Owl Bar were Daniel Edwin Ballie, 59; Nancy Lauretta Kelly, 64; David Allen Leach, 70; and Tony Wayne Palm, 74. Kelly was a bartender, and the others were patrons, officials have said.
All four victims were residents of Anaconda.
Guardian staff contributed reporting
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