For five days, a 30-year-old Butler man walked around with a bullet in his head.

Struck in a hail of gunfire at a city home Nov. 21, the man shunned medical treatment despite a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain, Butler police said.

The man’s identity and his life-threatening condition were not immediately known to police investigating the shooting in the 300 block of East Walnut Street.

It wasn’t until police Capt. David Dalcamo finally tracked the man down and convinced him to get to the hospital, fast, that surgeons examined him Nov. 26 and located the bullet’s entry wound and the remaining slug.

Police admitted being dumbfounded how he managed to go about his life with the traumatic head injury.

“He was complaining of headaches and hearing loss,” Dalcamo said of the man, who he would not identify.

On Thanksgiving Day eve, during surgery at the Allegheny General Hospital trauma center in Pittsburgh, the bullet — lodged above the man’s left ear — was extracted.

He was released from the hospital over the weekend and is recovering, authorities said.

Police continue to investigate the shooting. No arrests have been made and investigators have no clear motive.

“We’re following up on leads,” Dalcamo said, declining to say if any suspects have been identified.

Police have released few details about the incident, fearing it could jeopardize the investigation.

Apparently, there is little witness account to the barrage of gunfire unleashed shortly before 11 p.m. on Tim Crawford’s home — an apartment above a garage.

Police said any eyewitnesses have given only limited information.

The 57-year-old Crawford, the sole tenant on the lease, was home with seven other people.

“He said everyone was partying and then, the house explodes,” Dalcamo said of Crawford’s belated account to investigators. In all, 14 rounds from at least one gunman were fired at the home.

Dalcamo believes the shooting was “isolated and targeted.” But who was the target? He can’t — or won’t — say.

While police acknowledge they have received complaints from neighbors of suspected drug activity in the past at the home, no indication of drug use was uncovered in the apartment immediately after the shooting.

But officers found a key clue — fresh blood that indicate someone had been struck by the gunfire.

Once the salvo of bullets peppered the home, those inside scrambled for safety. Moments later, they hit the street, mostly running in different directions.

Others who escaped the apartment assisted the wounded 30-year-old man, who eventually made it home, police said.

Officers raced to the apartment and later secured a warrant to conduct a thorough search. They identified Crawford as the tenant. But there was no sign of him.

None of those who were with him came forward either.

Dalcamo said police checked with hospitals to find out if anyone with gunshot wounds sought treatment, but there were no reports. Police canvassed the neighborhood but that, too, yielded little.

It would not be until Nov. 24 that Dalcamo, the lead investigator, and Crawford would come in contact. Not long after, Dalcamo personally picked up Crawford at an undisclosed location and drove him back to the station for questioning.

The officer described Crawford as being “in hiding” immediately after the shooting.

Dalcamo declined further comment about Crawford’s mind set and refused to discuss details of the interview. He described Crawford, who claimed he was unaware that anyone was hit in the gunfire, as being “cooperative” with police.

Soon after talking with Crawford, police identified the 30-year-old man. Dalcamo said he contacted the man and convinced him to come and see him Nov. 26.

“I told him he needed to secure medical attention,” Dalcamo said.

About 3 p.m. that day, the officer drove the man to Butler Memorial Hospital. Soon after, he would be transferred to AGH.

During questioning, the man told police that he did not seek immediate treatment for his gunshot wound because he had to tend to “a family emergency.” Dalcamo would not elaborate.

But the man, Dalcamo said, has been “absolutely cooperative with me in the investigation.”

Police, however, are being tight-lipped with details about what he and others at Crawford’s apartment have shared with investigators.