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By Alaa Elassar, CNN
(CNN) — Time stood still for the locals of a small Montana town nestled in a quiet, scenic mountain valley after an Army veteran shot dead four bar patrons and went into hiding.
For seven days, the quiet charm of Anaconda gave way to fear as the town’s residents slept beside their guns at night and eyed their once peaceful, tree-lined neighborhoods that had become potential hiding places for a mass murderer on the run.
On August 1, Michael Paul Brown walked into The Owl Bar near his home in Anaconda and fatally shot Daniel Baillie, 59; Nancy Kelley, 64; David Leach, 70; and Tony Palm, 74, authorities said.
Brown had irrevocably scarred a beloved gathering spot, known for its cozy, neon-lit interior plastered with glowing beer logo signs and posters jeering with bawdy bar jokes and wisecracks.
“He knew everybody that was in that bar. I guarantee you that,” owner David Gwerder told The Associated Press. “He didn’t have any running dispute with any of them. I just think he snapped.”
It’s still unclear whether Brown was targeting any of the victims or if he shot them randomly. Brown’s niece, Clare Boyle, previously told CNN he struggled with his mental health during his time in the Army and was never the same after his service.
Upon fleeing The Owl Bar after the deadly shooting, Brown briefly went to his home before hiding in another structure down the street, authorities said Friday.
Security footage showed Brown barefoot and wearing only underwear as he left that structure, where he ditched his clothing and other personal items. He then stole a white Ford F-150 truck, authorities said.
“He was identified almost immediately when he got in that vehicle and took off,” Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen said.
The challenge was “an almost identical vehicle pulled into the highway in front of him, and so law enforcement wasn’t sure which white F-150 he was in,” Knudsen said.
It was still early morning when hospitals, day care centers and local businesses received a chilling emergency alert ordering them to lock down immediately.
“Once that happened, the news spread like wildfire,” local Randy Clark, a retired police officer, told CNN.
When Clark stepped outside his home, he was immediately engulfed by a massive dust cloud kicked up by speeding law enforcement vehicles.
For an entire week, the flashing blue and red lights of police vehicles cast eerie glows inside residents’ homes, while helicopters and drones hummed relentlessly overhead.
Neighbors and businesses bolted their doors and watched anxiously from behind curtains as police swarmed the streets. Armed and on edge, every unfamiliar noise sparked dozens of false alarms.
Last Sunday morning, the house beside Clark’s was crowded with SWAT vehicles when a young girl in the home awoke to a loud noise downstairs, triggering a false alarm.
“They responded to every call. They followed up on every tip. They spent hours climbing over these mountains looking for this criminal. They used every resource available to them to search for him,” Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte said about authorities’ efforts to find Brown.
The grueling manhunt was unwavering, with 250 law enforcement personnel traversing challenging terrain in the western Montana wilderness. The dozens of agencies searching for Brown included the FBI, Anaconda Deer Lodge County Police, the Granite County Sheriff’s Office and the Denver office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Authorities locked down the Barker Lake area of the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest last weekend as local, state and federal agencies searched by land and air, the Montana Department of Justice said.
“The type of terrain, it’s very challenging, so we have expanded our perimeters to look in different areas,” Montana Division of Criminal Investigation Administrator Lee Johnson said previously.
Anaconda resident Dan Haffey, who was a fire foreman for the Montana Division of Forestry, knows the area well. He told CNN his team would cut trails into Garrity Mountain for hikers.
“There’s a thousand places to hide on that mountain,” Haffey said. “I’ve been on forest fires, and in that drainage up there, and (there are) 5,000 acres. That mountain is gigantic.”
Investigators eventually found the truck Brown had stolen, but he “was not located in or around the vehicle,” Johnson said at the time.
On Friday, after a weeklong manhunt, Brown was found armed around 2 p.m. local time about 5-and-a-half miles away from the shooting scene. He is now in the custody of Anaconda-Deer Lodge County authorities, according to Knudsen.
Authorities on Friday declined to comment on which charges will be filed against the suspect. CNN is working to determine whether Brown has retained an attorney.
Tips from the public were crucial in locating Brown, who was “flushed out” and found in an area authorities had previously searched and cleared, Knudsen said.
On Thursday, there were about 130 personnel in the area where Brown was found, according to Knudsen.
“We think that was directly correlated to flushing him out today, getting him down into an area that we know we had searched before,” Knudsen said Friday. “It’s not someplace he’d been hiding.”
With the suspect in custody, authorities say they will now seek justice for the families of the victims.
Meanwhile, the community of Anaconda is cautiously moving toward a sense of normalcy.
Businesses have unlocked their doors again and locals have set aside their guns to find comfort in grieving together and supporting one another, Clark said. He added several restaurants are donating a portion of their sales to help support The Owl Bar.
“It’s always terrible for the victims’ families and friends to lose someone like that, in such a terrible way,” Clark said. “I’m sure at The Owl Bar, every time somebody drives by or goes in, or the name of any of the victims comes up, it will just bring everything back up, but the whole saying is, ‘time heals wounds.’”
CNN’s Dalia Faheid, Josh Campbell, Michelle Watson, Taylor Galgano, Jillian Sykes and Elizabeth Wolfe contributed to this report.
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