Montano had “significant psychiatric or psychological issues”, Metro Nashville Police spokesman Don Aaron said at a news conference late Wednesday. “As he emerged with ax in hand and started toward officers, five opened fire”, police said. Frith then backed out of the theater while keeping Montano contained inside as an elite police unit, SWAT, responded.
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“We didn’t know if anyone was still in there”, Frith said of the early moments of the police response. He died in a shootout with police.
One of those three also received a bruise on the arm, reportedly from a hatchet the suspect was carrying.
Frith, a six-year veteran of the Nashville Police Department, chose the door on the left.
Moviegoers who heard the commotion quickly informed authorities – already on the scene after a nearby traffic accident, police said.
Authorities said they have not found a vehicle near or at the scene belonging to Montano, and they do not believe he had one.
Wednesday’s attack came about two weeks after a maniac opened fire in a Louisiana movie theater, killing two people and injuring nine others before taking his own life and about three years after 12 people were slain and dozens wounded by a gunman at a cinema in Aurora, Colo., during a midnight screening of the Batman film “The Dark Knight Rises”. Montano also had a pellet gun.
Investigators said Montano blocked a door, forcing others inside to go out another door. All 10 officers have been placed on administrative duty while a preliminary investigation is carried out, according to the Nashville police.
“All of the citizens who gathered around us helped my daughter when we were pepper sprayed”, the father, Steven, said. We can’t say we’re not going to church.
A backpack that had been strapped to the man’s chest was later detonated to eliminate any threat.
Pruett told police she hadn’t seen her son since March 2013. Three people were hit with the spray and were treated but not hospitalized.
Police say the 29-year-old man identified as Vincente David Montano bought a ticket for “Mad Max: Fury Road” in southern Nashville and entered with pepper spray, a pellet gun and an ax.
The air inside the theater was thick with the chemical irritant, according to Aaron. “This could have been a lot worse”, Haas said.
An employee at the mission told Channel 4 that Montano checked in two days ago, but never stayed overnight.
What initially appeared to be another mass shooting at a movie theater ended up being an attack by a disturbed homeless man who wasn’t armed with a real gun and was eventually shot and killed by police. One person may have suffered a hatchet wound, he said.
Silvernail said that she went to live with Montano and his mother in Murfreesboro in 2008.
The following officers are on paid administrative leave, a routine procedure, after having fired shots at the Antioch theater attack suspect Wednesday.
The theater in Antioch is near Global Mall, a shopping center in a middle-class neighborhood.
No other details were immediately available.
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Frith was one of the first officers to reach the theater after reports of a strange-acting man with a hatchet and a gun were sent over the police radio. He requested a cup of water, then sat in the theater and allegedly stared down two women.
