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.
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South Precinct Officer Jonathan Frith was the first officer to encounter Montano, the news release said. The officer then backed out of the theatre while keeping Montano contained inside as Special Weapons and Tactics officers responded.
Only Montano was killed.
Dr. Marvin Swartz, a professor of psychiatry at Duke University School of Medicine said paranoia is often informed by cultural events, like the theater shootings in Colorado and Louisiana.
Spokesman Don Aaron said Thursday that the mother had just arrived in Mufreesboro to visit a relative.
In 2004, Montano’s mother, Denise Pruett, called police because he had been “hearing voices, telling him to do things”. 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.
[Hatchet-wielding man killed by police after attacking people inside movie theater]. Montano pointed his pistol at Frith and pulled the trigger, prompting Frith to fire one round from his patrol rifle in defense of himself.
An employee at the mission told Channel 4 that Montano checked in two days ago, but never stayed overnight.
The Murfreesboro report says Pruett brought with her a copy of a Tennessee identification card for Montano that listed an address for Nashville Rescue a homeless shelter.
Instead of a packed house showing a newly released popular film, Montano waged his attack in a theater where only seven others besides himself were present at midday, watching a movie that had already been out for some time.
Police in the US state of Tennessee have admitted to killing a mentally ill man who allegedly attacked people inside a theater with a fake gun and pepper-spray. They added Montano hurled several items at the officers, including pepper spray cannisters, a propane cannister with a gash in it, and the airsoft pistol.
Three people sustained minor injuries from being pepper sprayed in the theater. The man intervened and he was wounded by an ax that Montano was carrying. The site also mentioned that Montano has a long history of psychiatric problems.
Montano’s last involvement with Murfreesboro PD was Sunday when police received a missing persons report from Pruett, who reportedly lives in Florida now.
That very day, Montano’s mother contacted the Murfreesboro police department to report him missing.
The year before, Montano took out an order of protection against Moore, alleging his brother “broke the lock off my shed, scratched my car” and “began more abuse than I can handle”.
In September of that year, police returned after the mother and son had an argument over him not mowing the lawn.
Later that year, a Rutherford County judge, ordered a mental health evaluation for Montano.
When police told him it was time to leave, he began waving his arms wildly toward the officer. Also in that report, his mother told local authorities that he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2006.
The report says she said she had not seen him since March 2013.
Authorities said they have not found a vehicle near or at the scene belonging to Montano, and they do not believe he had one.
He said he heard three small pops and felt “pressure on the right side of his face”.
Attempts to reach Pruett through listed phone numbers and other messages have been unsuccessful.
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The Grand Forks Herald discovered that three victims were treated for pepper spray wounds, though none were hospitalized.
