Shooting Kills 4 in Bar, Sparking Montana Manhunt

Four people were killed in a shooting at a Montana bar on Friday, authorities said after launching a manhunt for the suspect. The shooting happened around 10:30am at the Owl Bar in Anaconda, according to the Montana Division of Criminal Investigation, which is leading the investigation. The suspect, who was identified by authorities as 45-year-old Michael Paul Brown, lives next door to the bar, the AP reports. Authorities said that his home was cleared by a SWAT team and that he was last seen in the Stump Town area, which is just west of Anaconda. Brown was believed to be armed, the Montana Highway Patrol said in a statement.

More than a dozen local and state police officers converged on that area, where they appeared to be searching for the suspect in the woods. A co-owner of the Firefly Café in Anaconda said she locked up her business at about 11am Friday after being alerted to the shooting by a friend. Two hours later, she was still waiting for an all-clear before reopening. "We are Montana, so guns are not new to us. For our town to be locked down, everybody's pretty rattled," Barbie Nelson said. "It's a small town, so we all probably know someone who was there" at the bar, she added. Anaconda is about 75 miles southeast of Missoula.