Montana bar shooting victims identified. Here's what we know about the case

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2 days ago

The victims killed in a bar shooting Friday in Anaconda, Montana, have been identified, Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen said Sunday as an all-out manhunt for the suspect continues.
The victims, all local residents, have been identified as 59-year-old Daniel Edwin Baillie, 64-year-old Nancy Lauretta Kelley, 70-year-old David Allen Leach, and 74-year-old Tony Wayne Palm, a news release from Knudsen's office said Sunday. The victims included a bartender and two customers, Knudsen said.
Officials previously used the wrong spelling for Baillie's last name.
'I want to offer our deepest and sincere condolences to the community of Anaconda, to the family and friends of these victims. This is just absolutely horrific,' Knudsen said.
Authorities are still looking for the suspect, Michael Paul Brown, who has been on the loose for more than 48 hours. Officials are offering a $7,500 reward for any information that will lead to locating Brown, Knudsen added. He's believed to be armed and dangerous.
Brown, who family say struggled with mental health issues, was seen on security footage fleeing The Owl Bar on Friday, investigators have previously said. He was last seen in the Stump Town area, west of Anaconda, according to The Associated Press.
Authorities locked down Barker Lake and the surrounding area inside the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest Saturday afternoon as local, state and federal agencies continue their search by land and air, a Montana Department of Justice spokesperson said.
Here's what else we know:
The shooting
Details about what led up to the shooting in the usually peaceful backcountry remain unclear.
The Montana Division of Criminal Investigation said the shooting took place at the Owl Bar at 10:30 a.m. Friday. Knudsen on Sunday said Brown used a rifle, but authorities were still working to determine what kind.
As of Sunday night, the bar was listed online as 'temporarily closed.'
Cassandra Dutra, a bartender at the establishment, told CNN she felt extremely overwhelmed and sad by the incident.
Brown lived next door to the bar and would come in frequently, she said, but noted 'he wasn't a part of the camaraderie' among other customers.
Dutra was not working on Friday, but said she lived nearby and heard noises during the shooting.
At first, she didn't think anything of it because there was construction outside the bar. When she heard there was a shooting, she did not immediately realize people had been hurt.
'I didn't immediately panic because I just know the atmosphere in the Owl … it never occurred to me that anybody was hurt,' she said.
Dutra told CNN that Kelley, one of the victims, was an accomplished, retired nurse who worked with cancer patients.
'I feel so sad for Nancy because I love Nancy and she was so very good to me from the day that I met her,' Dutra said. Kelley had just recently retired, Dutra said.
'It just is an extremely unfair ending for somebody who spent their entire life dedicated to cancer patients and making a huge difference,' she said.
David Gwerder, the owner of The Owl Bar, told the AP he was unaware of any conflicts between Brown and anyone who was in the bar Friday morning.
'He knew everybody that was in that bar. I guarantee you that,' Gwerder told the AP. 'He didn't have any running dispute with any of them. I just think he snapped.'
CNN has reached out to Gwerder for comment.
The suspect
Brown was part of an armored vehicle crew in the US Army from January 2001 to May 2005, and was deployed to Iraq from February 2004 to March 2005, Lt. Col. Ruth Castro, a spokesperson with the US Army, told CNN in an email Saturday.
He later joined the Montana National Guard from April 2006 to March 2009 and left military service as a sergeant, Castro said.
Brown's niece, Clare Boyle, told CNN her uncle struggled with mental health in the Army and wasn't the same after his service.
His condition worsened after his parents died, Boyle told CNN. She described him as 'very sick' but also recalled some happy moments with him, such as learning to ride a bike and fishing together.
Boyle expressed remorse and heartbreak for the victims' families, noting five families were 'destroyed' on Friday.
The Army declined to release information about Brown's mental health history citing policy and privacy constraints.
The search
In addition to Barker Lake in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest, where Brown is suspected of having escaped to, authorities are also searching the area around Stumptown Road, north of the lake.
Anaconda resident Dan Haffey, who previously served as a fire foreman for the Montana Division of Forestry, told CNN his team would cut trails into the mountain for hikers.
'There's a thousand places to hide on that mountain,' he said. 'I've been on forest fires and in that drainage up there, and they're 5,000 acres … That mountain is gigantic.'
Randy Clark, who lives near Highway 1 and Stumptown Road, told CNN there was 'heavy' helicopter, drone and SWAT presence on Stumptown Road on Sunday night.
Clark previously told CNN helicopter searches had occurred near his home on Friday. They continued until about 11 p.m. that night and resumed at 6 a.m. Saturday.
He said he had heard authorities shouting on Friday, but he couldn't tell if they were yelling at the suspect or communicating with each other.
'I heard a bunch of sirens and stuff and saw the state troopers and local police flying down Highway 1, west toward Philipsburg,' he said. '(They) stopped directly across from where I live. You could see the blue lights and stuff, everything.'
A white Ford F-150 truck Brown drove was found after the shooting on Friday, but he 'was not located in or around the vehicle,' Montana Division of Criminal Investigation Administrator Lee Johnson said at a news conference.
Anaconda Deer-Lodge County Police Chief Bill Sather said Saturday the FBI, the Denver office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Granite County Sheriff's Office were assisting with the investigation.
Attorney General Knudsen said during his Sunday press conference that there were '250 boots on the ground' searching for Brown, supported by air and ground resources from neighboring states and federal agencies. But he said that number would be reduced as the search shifts to a 'fugitive location operation.'
'It's still tourist season in western Montana, so we're not going to have as many resources here focused on the really sharp, focused search,' he said.
This story has been updated with additional details.
CNN's Taylor Romine, Josh Campbell, Taylor Galgano and Danya Gainor contributed to this report.