Montana shooting victims named as manhunt for suspect continues | US crime

On Sunday, the Montana Attorney General released the names of the four people who were slaughtered in a mass murder in a bar two days earlier.

The victims were Daniel Edwin Ballie, 59 years old; Nancy Lauretta Kelly, 64 years old; David Allen Leach, 70 years old; And Tony Wayne Palm, 74 years old. All four resided from Anaconda, Montana, where the quadruple murder took place, said a press release from the Attorney General of Montana, Austin Knudsen.

Former American army soldier Michael Paul Brown, 45, is suspected of having killed Ballie, Kelly, Leach and Palm at the Owl Bar in Anaconda. Kelly was a bartender and the others were customers, Knudsen said at a press conference on Sunday.

Brown generally stayed on Sunday, with officials warning that he could be armed and move to a stolen car containing clothing and camping equipment.

Knudsen allegedly alleged that Brown had committed the mass murder of Friday morning with a rifle which, according to the police, was his personal weapon.

The Attorney General warned city residents of more than 9,000 people than Brown, who lived next to the bar where he was a regular, could return to the region.

Anaconda is around 75 miles (120 km) south-east of Missoula in a valley hemmed by mountains.

“It is an unstable person who entered and murdered four people in cold blood for no reason,” said Knudsen on Sunday. “So there is absolutely a concern for the public.”

Many local public events have been canceled during the weekend while Brown’s search has entered its third day, according to the Facebook pages in the region.

Robert Wyatt, 70, told the Associated Press that he was neighboring with Leach.

The two men lived next to each other in a social housing complex for the elderly and people with disabilities.

“Everyone has been nervous” since Friday, Wyatt said. Leach was deaf and kept mainly for him, said Wyatt – and he remembers that Leach made a family visit almost a year ago. But Leach has always been happy to help its neighbors with tasks such as moving furniture.

“If you needed help, Dave would help,” said Wyatt. “He was a good neighbor.”

Among the areas that the investigators searched Brown, there are woods where he hunted and camped while he was a child.

Brown served in the army as an armor equipment from 2001 to 2005 and deployed in Iraq from early 2004 to March 2005, said Lieutenant-Colonel Ruth Castro, army spokesperson. Brown was in the Montana National Guard from 2006 to March 2009, said Castro, and left military service to the rank of sergeant.

Brown’s niece, Clare Boyle, told AP that his uncle had spent years fighting mental illness. Boyle said that she and other family members had repeatedly asked for help.

“He’s not just a drunk / high man who is unleashed,” she said in a Facebook message. “He is a sick man who does not know who he is sometimes and often does not know where or when he is either.”

Knudsen said on Sunday that local police knew Brown before mass murder. It was widely believed that he knew at least some of the victims, given how much he lived at the bar.

The authorities broadcast a brown photograph from surveillance sequences taken shortly after the fatal shootings. It seemed to be barefoot and in a minimum of clothes.

But the police now believe that Brown has abandoned the vehicle in which it escaped and stole another which had camping equipment, shoes and clothes – leaving the possibility that Brown is now dressed.

The last time the police saw Brown was Friday afternoon, but there was “some confusion” because there were several white vehicles involved, said Knudsen.

There is a reward of $ 7,500 for any information that leads to the capture of Brown.

“It’s always Montana,” said Knudsen. “The Montanans know how to take care of themselves. But please, if you have observations, call 911 ”.

Elsewhere in the United States on Sunday, the authorities of Tennessee were looking for a man sought after in the murders of the parents, grandmother and uncle of a child found alone and living in a siege of throttle.

Austin Robert Drummond, 28, was appointed suspect in this quadruple murder. According to investigators, two other men had been arrested for helping Drummond.

The victims in this case were found dead in Tiptonville, Tennessee, about 40 miles from where the baby was left, officials said. They were identified as James M Wilson, 21 years old; Adrianna Williams, 20 years old; Cortney Rose, 38 years old; and Braydon Williams, 15.

Associated Press contributed the reports