ANTIOCH, Tenn. — A man with “significant” psychological issues who was armed with a hatchet and pellet gun unleashed a volley of pepper spray at audience members inside a movie theater Wednesday before being fired at by a police officer and shot dead by a SWAT team as he tried to escape out a back door, police said.
The attacker, identified as Vincente David Montano, 29, of Nashville, was carrying two backpacks, one of which hung from his chest, and he wore a surgical mask, possibly to protect himself from the pepper spray he unleashed in large amounts during the showing of “Mad Max: Fury Road,” Metro Nashville Police spokesman Don Aaron said. He said three people were blasted with the spray and treated. There were eight people in the theater, including Montano, Aaron said.
Metro police have released a photo of Vincente Montano, 29, the suspect in the Antioch, Tenn., theater attack.As Montano fled out the back of the theater Wednesday, he encountered a SWAT team and was shot dead, Aaron said. About two dozen gunshots could be heard in a 10-second period in raw video footage posted online by WKRN TV.
Aaron said police had not uncovered a motive, but he said Montano had been committed for psychiatric treatment at least four times, twice in 2004 and twice in 2007. It wasn’t immediately clear why he had been committed or if that commitment was involuntary.