Still no sign of 45-year-old Michael Paul Brown (pictured), an Army Veteran who, according to authorities, opened fire last Friday morning on the only 4 people in the Owl Bar in Anaconda. All four — the bartender and 3 patrons — are dead.
At a news conference in Anaconda, the Montana Division of Criminal Investigation Administrator Lee Johnson tells us that Brown fled the bar in a white truck but it looks like he ditched it. Attorney General Austin Knudsen has identified the victims as 59-year-old Daniel Edwin Ballie, 64-year -old Nancy Lauretta Kelly, 70-year-old David Allen Leach, and 74-year-old Tony Wayne Palm…all residents of Anaconda.
Knudsen tells us the U.S. Marshall’s Office has established a $7,500 reward for anyone who comes through with information that leads to Brown’s capture or arrest. There is some concern that Brown may have returned to Anaconda and is being sheltered there.
The 45-year-old fugitive served a tour in Iraq and his family indicates he hasn’t been the same since. His niece, posting on Facebook, says her uncle is “a sick man who doesn’t know who he is sometimes and frequently doesn’t know where or when he is, either.”
If we use the modern definition of a mass killing of at least four victims are shot and killed, this is only the second mass killing in Montana history. The only other one was also in the Anaconda area in 2015.
