About two dozen gunshots could be heard in a 10-second period in raw video footage posted online by WKRN TV.
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Montano fired his pellet gun at South Precinct Officer Jonathan Frith, at which time the lawman shot back with his rifle, securing the area until SWAT team members emerged.
It is impossible to say for sure whether Montano knew that the pellet gun would easily be mistaken for a pistol, which is exactly what authorities say happened.
“I still to this moment don’t think it’s real”, Roby said.
The gun he was carrying looked like a firearm but was an airsoft pistol, Nashville police. He said he had used his weapon as a Marine, but the confrontation in Theater 4 “was a lot closer”. Over the last 11 years, Montano had been committed at least four times.
“We have no motive”, said police spokesman Don Aaron, adding that Montano has had “significant psychiatric” issues and that police are looking at his background.
It comes just two weeks after John Russell Houser open fired in a Lafayette, Louisiana, theater – killing two people and injuring nine – during a showing of the Amy Schumer movie Trainwreck.
Police were called to the scene for reports of “an active shooter” inside the Carmike Hickory 8 movie theatre in Antioch, southeast of downtown Nashville, Aaron said. Aaron identified the victim only as Steven because he said the man did not want to bring any more attention to his family.
Investigators said they have not found anyone who had any dialogue with Montano, other than the person who sold him a ticket and gave him a cup of water.
Three people were injured when Montano doused the theater with pepper spray, including one man who also suffered a superficial hatchet wound from the assailant. According to police one of the backpacks included a fake bomb and the other one was still under police investigation.
It was decided that Montano would fly to Chicago because of his mental problems, but he was arrested when an officer tried to take a plastic fork away from him. Police took Montano to a mental hospital for an evaluation, though the results of that are unclear.
“We’re waiting on instructions from police, we have not been contacted yet”, he said.
Frith, Swoner said, was an early leader on the scene, directing officers and calling for more help.
A 911 call to dispatch described the chaos inside the theater.
“I was engaged with what I perceived to be small arms fire from a small caliber handgun”, he said Thursday.
Mattie Sanchez works at the Sprint store near the theater.
Though he seemed quiet, neighbors also remember him because of the police cars they saw at his house.
“He was highly agitated, he was pacing back and forth, so this went on for several hours”, she said. She said she hadn’t seen Montano since 2013 and he was a “paranoid schizophrenic” who had trouble taking care of himself.
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(AP Photo/Mark Humphrey). A police officer walks by a display of movie posters, including one for “Mad Max“, outside a movie theater following a shooting Wednesday, August 5, 2015, in Antioch, Tenn.
