() Montana shooting suspect Michael Paul Brown, the gunman accused of killing four people in an Anaconda bar last week, was captured without incident Friday after a weeklong manhunt, state officials said.
“The Anaconda shooter Michael Brown has been apprehended. Incredible response from law enforcement officers across Montana. Thank you to all partners for your commitment to the search. May God continue to be with the families of the four victims still grieving their loss,” Gov. Greg Gianforte said on X.
Brown was arrested around 2 p.m. in a structure within the area where authorities had been searching, officials said. They said the site previously had been inspected and cleared.
“It’s a good day. We got the man,” Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen said in a news release.
Brown, a 45-year-old U.S. Army veteran and former Montana National Guard member, allegedly killed the four victims bartender Nancy Lauretta Kelly and patrons Daniel Edwin Ballie, David Allen Leach and Tony Wayne Palm at the Owl Bar on Aug. 1 before fleeing.
He lived next to the bar and escaped in a stolen car with clothes and camping gear, authorities have said.
Anaconda is a town of just over 9,000 in southwestern Montana, about 25 miles west of Butte. Police had been searching the mountainous region for Brown, who reportedly has a history of mental health problems.
Brown’s niece, Clare Boyle, told The Associated Press that she and other family members repeatedly sought help for him. She described him as “a sick man who doesn’t know who he is sometimes and frequently doesn’t know where or when he is either.”
Brown was being held Friday at the Butte-Silver Bow Detention Center, officials said.
