00:00Good morning everybody. I'm a Montana Attorney General Austin Knudson.
00:07At this time we felt it was appropriate after about a 48 hour investigation to go
00:12ahead and give the public an update on what's going on and the media as well.
00:16At this point we have identified our suspect as well as the four victims.
00:25So as you all know at approximately 10.30, 10.40 in the morning on Friday our suspect Michael
00:35Paul Brown entered the Owl Bar here in Anaconda. After a brief series of actions, open fire
00:44and shot and kill for local residents here in Anaconda. First of all I want to offer our
00:52deepest and sincere condolences to the community of Anaconda and to the family and friends
00:57of these victims. This is just absolutely horrific. Something like we haven't seen in the state
01:02of Montana and thankfully we do not see these things very often in the state of Montana.
01:07At this point I can confirm the names of our victims. 59 year old Daniel Edwin Bailey who
01:17was a patron at the bar that day. 64 year old Nancy Loretta Kelly who was the employee and
01:25bartender that morning. 70 year old David Allen Leach who was also a patron that morning.
01:32And finally 74 year old Tony Wayne Palm. All the victims were from here in Anaconda.
01:42At this point I also want to point out the fact we've got a tremendous law enforcement response
01:50that's responded here in Anaconda. I know at one point yesterday we had over 250 boots on
01:56the ground that were helping out with the manhunt and engaged trying to find this suspect.
02:02At this point our suspect is still at large. And I'll go ahead and say this right now we've
02:09got tremendous cooperation from Homeland Security, from our federal partners, the FBI, the U.S.
02:14Marshal Service. We want to find this guy. This is a dangerous individual who was committed
02:23an absolutely heinous crime against this community and these victims. I'll go ahead and announce
02:28right now that we at this time we have a $7,500 reward. And that's just the initial reward.
02:34I'll also state that. But we have a $7,500 reward for any information that would lead us to Michael
02:44Paul Brown. We also have set up a hotline through the U.S. Marshal Service. This is really easy.
02:501-877-WANTED2. The number 2. I'll give that number. 1-877-926-8332. If you have any information
03:04that would help us get to the whereabouts of our suspect, please use that number. Again, I'm going to
03:13point out, we had just a tremendous local, statewide, and federal law enforcement presence to the scene.
03:22I could read off the entire list of all the agencies, but we'd be here for a while. But this is what we do
03:27in Montana. We step up. We help our neighbors. We come in. And I also want to thank the feds.
03:34The federal agencies have been tremendous help here. There have been a lot of assets.
03:37We've got air assets, ground assets. We're going to catch this guy. This is still absolutely priority
03:44number one. Probably in the next 24 hours, you're going to see the law enforcement response shift a
03:52little bit. This is absolutely still priority number one to find this suspect. But we've got a lot of
03:57resources here in Anaconda. They've been here for about 48 hours. They've got home agencies. It's still
04:03tourist season in western Montana. So we're not going to have as many resources here focused on
04:10the really sharp focus search. You're going to see that stance shift a little bit. But this is going
04:15to turn into a fugitive location operation at this point. So that's our update at this point.
04:23I'm happy to take a couple of questions as long as we stay cogent to the situation.
04:28So the question has to do with the image that was released by the Montana Department of Justice
04:46yesterday. It showed the individual largely naked in his underwear and his socks, I believe.
04:52That was relatively soon after the crime was committed. We know he went to another
04:57location not far away. He got rid of some personal belongings and he got rid of his clothes.
05:04We have very good reason to believe that he is clothed. He does have shoes and he's probably able
05:11to get around. There was some time there where the vehicle he ended up grabbing was loaded full of
05:18equipment. It was not his vehicle. It was a stolen vehicle, but there was camping equipment in it.
05:22We believe there was some clothing in it. So at this point, we have every reason to believe the
05:27suspect is fully clothed, shoes on his feet, able to get around.
05:31When's the last time he was seen by law enforcement?
05:34I couldn't answer that question. I don't know particularly. I think there was a pursuit
05:39roughly around noon on Friday. There was some confusion because there were two white vehicles
05:46that were involved. There were some federal assets that were involved in that pursuit.
05:50But I believe that was the last law enforcement contact was roughly noon, 12, 1230, around that time, Friday.
06:00Has anybody else been arrested or questioned in relation to helping Michael Brown out?
06:08At this point, I mean, all options are on the table. The investigation is still ongoing. I don't have any
06:12specifics about that, but definitely the investigation is continuing. Let's grab somebody else.
06:16What type of firearm did he use for the crime? And does he believe he still has that?
06:22So we can confirm that it was a rifle. At this point, I'm not going to give out a bunch of more information about that.
06:30We do know the individual had access to firearms. We believe he is probably still armed and dangerous.
06:35But we can confirm that it was a rifle that was used on the scene.
06:39Do you know where he was going?
06:41We believe it was going personal, right?
06:43I don't have any information about that.
06:49The question was, did he know the victims?
06:54From what I have gathered, it sounds like he was a regular at this establishment.
07:03He literally lived next door.
07:04I think it's likely that he knew the bartender and these patrons, which makes us even more heinous.
07:11So if he has committed suicide, are y'all using cadaver dogs to solicit him?
07:17We've got multiple, multiple assets up. We're exploring every option here.
07:22Could he have committed suicide or be dead?
07:24Yep. But we are acting under the assumption that he is alive, well, armed, and extremely dangerous.
07:30Have there been previous reports on Mr. Brown to the local police? Has he had citations here?
07:38The only information I have about that is I believe there probably is some criminal record.
07:42I think he's known to local law enforcement.
07:45That's all public record, if he's got an arrest ward, arrest records out there.
07:50But I don't have any specific information about that right now.
07:52Is the search area still the same as it was Friday and Saturday?
07:57Yes.
07:58I've heard from local people, especially one man who said he brought Michael hunting when he was a child.
08:05They said that that area is where he would go to hunt.
08:08Do you have people that are familiar with the area that are searching for him and may know if he had, like, camped out or made a stash or something?
08:17I can tell you that we've got very detailed information on the search area.
08:22We've got a lot of expertise, a lot of knowledge of the area.
08:25We've got every cabin, every hunting site that's known up there pinned.
08:30And there is a tremendous number of assets focused on searching that area.
08:39Is there a sense of whether this was an impulsive act or a plan?
08:45I don't have any information about that this time. We don't know.
08:49Concerns, you might come back into town?
08:52Absolutely there's concerns you might come back into town.
08:54This is, by all indications, this is an unstable individual who walked in and murdered four people in cold blood for no reason whatsoever.
09:02So there absolutely is concern for the public.
09:04Again, I'm going to stress, we believe this is an armed and extremely dangerous individual.
09:10I'm going to ask the public to be vigilant.
09:12This is still Montana.
09:14Montanans know how to take care of themselves.
09:15But please, if you have any sightings, call 911.
09:19If you see anything that looks out of the ordinary, strange, call 911.
09:24If you have a tip, call that tip line, 1-877-WANTED.
09:28And the number 2, 1-877-926-8332.
09:32But if you see something local, call 911.
09:36Get us out there.
09:37Even if you're not sure.
09:39Does infrared work only at night?
09:41Or does that work in the daytime?
09:43No, thermal works at daytime also.
09:45And those assets are deployed.
09:47They're in the air.
09:48I know you stressed there were a lot of boots on the ground since research began.
09:53Are we still using air resources at this time?
09:55Yes, we still have air resources in the air from some of our federal partners, from some of our local neighboring partners.
10:03And again, this is a testament to Montana and to Montana law enforcement.
10:08Something like this happens, tragedies happen, people show up and we help out.
10:11So we really want to thank our neighboring agencies who's given...
10:16Hope your microphones are okay with water.
10:19Step that down, would you change?
10:20Just stand up.
10:22Or not.
10:23Yes, those assets are still in the air.
10:30Okay, there's no other questions.
10:31Thank you all for being here.
10:32Appreciate it.
10:33Pretty bad.
10:36Okay, again, I want to thank all of our law enforcement assets.
10:39This is a tremendous tragedy and we're going to find this guy.
10:42We'll ride the other.
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