US: Montana shooter's vehicle located, suspect still on loose, say officers

Montana [US], August 2 : Investigators searching for a man they say shot and killed four people at a Montana bar on Friday (local time) morning have located the vehicle he fled in, but the suspect remains on the loose, officials said, as per CNN.

A white Ford F-150 that Michael Paul Brown is believed to have been driving was found on Friday, but Brown "was not located in or around the vehicle," Montana Division of Criminal Investigation Administrator Lee Johnson said at a news conference late Friday.

Authorities are now focusing their search in the mountains near Stumptown Road, west of Anaconda, where the shooting took place, Johnson said, CNN reported.

Brown is believed to be armed and dangerous, the Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Law Enforcement Center said in a Facebook post, advising the public to stay out of the area and to not approach him, as per CNN.

The shooting took place at 10:30am (local time) at The Owl Bar, and the scene is secure, the Montana DCI said, without providing additional details about what led up to the shooting.

Investigators have identified all four victims of the shooting but aren't releasing their names until their families have been notified, Johnson said.

Friday's violence is among at least 256 mass shooting in the US so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

Cassandra Dutra, a bartender at the Owl Bar for six months, told CNN she feels extremely overwhelmed and sad about the shooting on Friday.

"It just isn't real. It's totally overwhelming," she said. She believes every person in the bar at the time of the shooting was killed, which included a bartender who was the only staff member working, and three customers.

She said Brown lived next door to the bar and would come in frequently, but noted "he wasn't a part of the camaraderie" existing with the others.

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