Montana man who evaded authorities for a week after bar shooting faces four counts of murder

BILLINGS Mont AP A man suspected of killing four people at a Montana bar and evading capture for a week while hundreds of law enforcement officers searched for him in the nearby mountains faces four counts of murder according to court records Defendant Michael Paul Brown lived next door to The Owl Bar in Anaconda Montana where a bartender and three patrons were shot and killed Aug Agents have not commented on a foreseen motive for the -year-old former soldier His niece has commented Brown long struggled with mental illness The charges Brown faces were posted on a court website Saturday after the development previously had been under seal by a state judge Charging documents were not directly available Following the shooting government stated Brown stole a truck and then ditched it a meager miles outside of town close to where he was eventually apprehended He hid in nearby forests moving locations while helicopters and drones circled overhead and officers and dogs searched on the ground functionaries explained But he was eventually flushed into a sparsely populated area near a state highway by the pressure of so a large number of officers searching for him according to administrators Brown was captured on Aug inside an unoccupied structure near a state highway Investigators also are examining whether he had any contact with individuals or property owners who might have helped him while he was on the run State Department of Justice spokesperson Chase Scheuer declared Friday that the probe is ongoing Brown is scheduled to make an initial district court appearance on Sept He is being held on million bail and represented by attorney Walter Hennessey who did not promptly respond to telephone messages on Friday or Saturday Anaconda about miles kilometers northwest of Butte is home to roughly people Hemmed in by mountains it was founded by a copper magnate in the late s A smelter stack that is no longer operational looms over the valley The owner of The Owl Bar has disclosed Brown patronized it over the past several decades but he was not aware of any conflicts between the suspect and casualties A conviction for murder known in Montana as deliberate homicide is punishable by death in the state Executions have been on hold since under a court ruling regarding a drug used in lethal injections Source