A shaken witness who was reportedly struck with pepper spray along with his daughter thanked police for saving their lives. A man armed with a hatchet and gun unleashed a volley o…
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“I applaud the Metro Police Department for its great work to apprehend the suspect, keep our citizens and visitors safe, and prevent a tragedy”, he said.
The man who was shot and killed by police Wednesday after he attacked moviegoers in Nashville, Tennessee, has been identified as 29-year-old Vincente David Montano.
“He was shot, fatally wounded, and has been pronounced deceased at the scene”, said Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron.
Seven months later, Montano’s mother called police again and said she could no longer deal with her son’s mental issues.
“This individual has had significant psychiatric or psychological issues”, Aaron said. One of the backpacks was later detonated and found to contain a fake bomb.
The propane canister was gashed, likely with a hatchet, rendering it useless.
Vincente Montano, 29, battled mental illness for more than a decade and had a history of suicidal and homicidal thoughts, according to Murfreesboro Police reports. Some of the theatergoers ran out and alerted police.
Montano had armed himself with a hatchet and a pellet gun and was carrying two backpacks.
Aaron said Montano repeatedly pointed his weapon at SWAT officers and began hurling objects at them, including canisters of the chemical spray. “As Montano’s gun popped, sounding like a small-caliber pistol, four SWAT members fired”, police said in a statement.
Aaron said Montano had multiple and continuous opportunities to end the situation and surrender, but he chose not to. “Officers believed he was carrying an explosive… and deemed him to be an imminent threat”.
Authorities say he attacked people in a movie theater on Wednesday with an ax, pepper-spray and a pellet gun.
The former Marine entered the darkened theater, with the movie still playing, and encountered Montano, who appeared to be shooting at him.
Nashville Police said Vincente David Montano was killed by police outside the Antioch theater. While original reports to and from law enforcement stated that Montano was a potential “active shooter“, apparently it was a different picture that later came to light when it was discovered the weapon was a pellet gun that officers mistook for a real firearm, according to The Washington Post.
It was the first in a string of police reports that describe a troubled young man and a mother struggling to keep him under control.
That very day, Montano’s mother contacted the Murfreesboro police department to report him missing. She told them her son was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in April 2006.
Attempts to reach Pruett through telephone numbers listed for her and other messages were unsuccessful.
Nashville authorities – prior to the police announcement that the gun was a replica – said the outcome Wednesday could have been much more serious.
Montano has a Tennessee ID card with a Nashville address, but police think he was homeless.
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The Tennessee and Louisiana shootings come three years after 12 people were slain and dozens wounded by a gunman at a cinema in Aurora, Colorado, during a midnight screening of the Batman film “The Dark Knight Rises“.
